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Withdrawing money from the bank, making a deposit, getting an account statement from ATMs: These are all simple daily operations most of us take for granted. But not until recently did banks offer these services to sight-impaired people. 

Now three major banks, all of which have downtown Berkeley locations, now offer “talking” ATMs – automated teller machines that are accessible to blind people by use of headphones. Berkeley is one of only three cities in the world that offer talking ATMs from each of the three banks, improving the lives of the sight-impaired. 

Citibank installed five of the first talking ATM machines in the country in November 1999. One of the machines was set up at Citibank’s Shattuck Avenue location, the four others were scattered across California, including one in San Francisco and one in San Carlos. 

Citibank agreed to install the machines following discussions with the California Council of the Blind and members of the blind community. Berkeley disability rights lawyer Lainey Feingold was involved in the negotiations, as were Oakland lawyer Linda Dardarian and the Berkeley-based Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund. 

“Information has to be accessible, not just buildings,” Feingold said. “If your site is not accessible, you aren’t on the information highway . . . information has to be accessible.” 

Wells Fargo followed suit in April 2000, when it installed eight pilot machines in the Bay Area and 12 others in the Los Angeles and San Diego areas. One ATM was placed at Wells Fargo’s downtown Berkeley site at Shattuck Avenue and Center Street and another at its Elmwood branch on College Avenue. 

Wells Fargo anticipates having these machines available at each of its 1,500 California locations by the end of 2003. 

In June, Bank of America opened its first 15 talking ATMs across California and promised to install more than 2,500 in California and Florida, its largest retail markets, over the next three years. Its main Berkeley branch on Shattuck Avenue now offers a talking ATM, as do branches in Oakland and San Francisco. 

Part of the negotiations with Bank of America stated that the Bank of America web site also needs to be accessible to the sight-impaired, the first such agreement in the United States. The web site is already partially accessible and the bank is working on completing the project, Feingold said. 

The talking ATMs provide audible instructions for sight-impaired customers. The machines have audio jacks that deliver spoken instructions privately to protect the users’ security as they withdraw cash, deposit money or perform other transactions. The machines lead customers step by step through each process. 

Nicaise Dogbo, a blind person who lives and works in San Francisco, has been using a talking ATM at a Bank of America in downtown San Francisco since it opened May 15. He is one of many people who consider talking ATMs a major advancement in accessibility for the disabled. 

Before the talking ATMs opened, Dogbo said he and other blind patrons had no choice but to go inside the bank to make all transactions. 

“We’re talking independence,” he said. “We’re talking easy access. Anybody should be able to put their money in the bank and use ATMs.” 

The world’s first talking ATM was installed in San Francisco’s City Hall by Credit Union last fall, which Dogbo used occasionally. Besides the City Hall location and the various Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citibank locations, only the Toronto-based Royal Bank of Canada has the machines. 

However, this should change in the next few years, as more banks start adapting the machines. Feingold is currently involved in negotiations with other banks across the country to include talking ATMs. These banks include Bank One in the Midwest and Fleet Bank in New England. 

“I have gotten messages from all over the world of people asking how they can get these,” she said. “People in Scotland, Hong Kong, Canada are all interested. 

“It’s pretty significant. This is just the first wave. We hope that in the next three years it won’t be a big deal any more, that when you think of an ATM, you will think of it working for a blind person as well as somebody who can see.”