You’ll be surprised and possibly shocked at everything that happens during this fun and interesting podcast as I visit the ATM and take a slightly different route to work while wondering aloud about the fate of the blind and others with disabilities in the areas affected by the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
Advocating full participation through equal accessibility.
Hi Darrell. I haven’t listened to yesterday’s podcast yet, but I’d like to make some comments. First off, my life skills tutor and I walked to a talking ATM a couple weeks ago, and I withdrew some money. This was my first time using a talking ATM, and I was very pleased with its functionality and accessibility. My mom and I had previously stopped by a different talking ATM, but I forgot to bring along a headset so she had to help me. This time, however, I brought along the headset that I use when working on my computer so that my JAWS isn’t fighting with my roommate’s JAWS. The speech in the ATM seemed to be that of the AT&T Natural Voices or Cepstral, I couldn’t tell which one. But it was very clear, and I could understand the instructions perfectly. This ATM had the option of speaking in Spanish. Although this probably would’ve been neat to hear how the speech synthesizer handled Spanish instructions, I thought since this was my first time using a talking ATM by myself, I’d rather hear English. The ATM keypad had raised markings on it, and there was Braille indicating each slot, i.e., where to insert my debit card, etc. I think my tutor was quite impressed by the ATM as well. Second, Katrina. My heart goes out to all those affected by the hurricane, disabled and non-disabled.