Law Office of Lainey Feingold
Disability Rights Legal Advocacy

The June 6, 2012 Google Alert for Talking ATMs included a news report, posted below, of the “first” Talking ATM in India. It was not the first time the Indian press covered accessible ATMs though. In September 2011 the Hindu Business Times reported on the experience of using a Talking ATM for the first time, but on closer read last Fall’s story may just have been describing temporary installations. Whether or not Union Bank of India has installed the first or second Talking ATM, congratulations go out to advocates in the Indian blind community and that country’s banking industry for recognizing the importance of accessible technology.

May 9, 2012 marks the first Global Accessibility Awareness Day. On this day designed to raise awareness of the need for digital inclusion, the Law Office of Lainey Feingold recognizes the large United States institutions that have committed to accessibility through the Structured Negotiations process. The entities have worked with the blind community to improve accessibility to their websites and other technologies. They have recognized the importance of inclusion and have done so in a collaborative and solution-driven way.

As a lawyer who has represented the blind community for the past seventeen years, I feel a particular affinity for the story of Chen Guangcheng, the blind Chinese lawyer and human rights activist whose bravery has captivated news audiences the world over. Chen is being recognized across the globe for his courageous human rights work and his movie-quality escape from house arrest, Is he capturing media attention in part because he is blind? Maybe. While under any definition Chen would be a hero worth celebrating, Chen’s blindness is certainly part of what makes his story so compelling.

International Talking ATM installations remind us that advocacy work done in one country can have ripple affects across the globe. ATM manufactures distribute their technology around the world, and slowly, slowly this technology is becoming more accessible everywhere. Today’s news brought word of the first Talking ATMs in Semarang, Central Java and Surabaya in East Java, Indonesia. The full news report, which first appeared in the Jakarta Post, is reprinted below. Visit the International Issues Category of LFLegal for more stories of Talking ATM installations outside the United States.

Today’s Talking ATM Google Alert brought news of the first Talking ATM in Brunei, a sovereign state located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia. The country’s official name is Brunei Darussalam, meaning Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace.

The news came via a blog post, reprinted here, by Lim Sheng Ming. The blog post was based on an article, reprinted in full here, that was published in the Borneo Bulletin and reprinted on the Brunei Direct website. As the article mentions, Brunei is getting its Talking ATMs after Standard Chartered Bank successfully launched them in Korea, China, India and Indonesia. Visit the International Issues category of this website for other posts about ATM installations outside the United States. The ATM industry is global, and advocacy must be too.

Congratulations to the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) in the United Kingdom for signing up Barclays Bank as part of RNIB’s “Money Talks” program. Barclays has committed to install Talking ATMs at its branches by the end of 2012. Posted here is the article about Barclays that appeared on ZDNet UK on November 22, 2011.