The move is an attempt to comply with current guidelines set by the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliant Board, which encourage the use of speech output as a way of making automated teller machines (ATMs) more accessible for people with visual impairments.
The technology is expected to offer an alternative to the Braille-enhanced machines already implemented, which have proved largely unsuccessful as not all of the blind population in the US actively reads Braille, according to Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB).
As part of the agreement, ScanSoft will supply its RealSpeak text-to-speech (TTS) technology, which the company says will guide visually impaired users through transactions with a natural-sounding voice and alert users to any transactional errors.
The system will be included in Diebold’s Opteva family of ATMs, which are powered by the company’s open software platform Agilis, to provide text-to-speech capabilities in up to six languages on a single ATM.
This premium voice engine is an important part of our solutions, and it will help us exceed accessibility requirements, said Danny O’Brien, senior vice president of global product marketing for Diebold. Speech brings an important human element to our ATMs, and it enhances the many accessibility features we already provide to the consumer.
Both companies have worked with the NFB during the development of their respective products.
