[gui-talk] Bank of America's ATMs

[George and Pamela Dominguez]

All right, there is something that just doesn't make sense here.  If you
need headphones to hear the speech, why would the speech bother sighted
people at all, since they would not be putting headphones in?  They
shouldn't be able to hear it at all, so there is something wrong with that
"logic".  I'm not blaming you for it; it's what you were told.  But it
doesn't make sense.  Pam.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "S Farwaneh" <farwaneh at email.arizona.edu>
To: "NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List" <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, January 04, 2008 11:03 PM
Subject: [gui-talk] Bank of America's ATMs


>
> >Speaking of accessibility, I had an interesting experience with Bank
> >of America and I'm interested to know if others encountered the same
> >experience. As you know, BoA was  the first to install talking ATMs;
> >a few months ago, they replaced some or perhaps all their ATMs in
> >Arizona with a new model; it claims to be a talking machine yet when
> >you insert your headphone nothing happens. I spoke with several
> >managers who had no clue what the reason was until today. I was told
> >that due to sighted customers' complaints about the constant speech,
> >they turned off the speech and require that those who need it to
> >register their account as "hard of hearing" in order for their cards
> >to be identified by the machine and the speech to be activated. I
> >asked why The confusion between blind and hard of hearing but the
> >manager did not know. He also claims that these machines are being
> >used at all BoA locations nation-wide. So I would like to know if
> >other BoA customers outside Arizona have similar encounters. are you
> >still able to use their talking ATMs without this hassle? what kind
> >of action would you advise at this point? I am thinking of moving my
> >account to another bank, but since BoA used to be accessible, what
> >can we do to stop banks from regressing to inaccessibility?
>
> Thanks for your input which I welcome either privately or to the list.
>
> Samira
>
>
>
> Samira Farwaneh
> Assistant Professor, Arabic Language and Linguistics
> Department of Near Eastern Studies
> Department of Linguistics
> Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Program
>
> Louise Foucar Marshall Building
> 845 N Park Avenue, Room 440;  PO BOX 210158B
> University of Arizona;  Tucson, Arizona  85721-0158B
>
> Phone: (520) 621-8629 Or 621-8012
> Fax: (520) 621-2333
>
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