Recently I went to a walk up ATM, and found something funny. Like we had discussed in class, there was brail on the side buttons that read, “receipt” and “enter”. Previously we compared the cost benefit to having brail on the drive up ATMs and the walk up ones. It didn’t make sense to put it on the drive up ones, because logically not blind person would be driving. However, if thought about economically, we would conclude that the cost to make a separate machine that didn’t include brial was greater than the cost to have one machine that simply included brail on all machines. The issue I’m having with the recent ATM machine I saw is this. Umpqua bank has completely updated their machines in the last few months. Now you can deposit money and checks at any hour, which is definitely convenient and efficient. Strangely enough, brail is on the side of the machine for the two words “receipt” and “enter”. This may not seem odd to you, unless I said the rest of the machine is completely touch screen. By this, I find it hard to rationalize why Umpqua would go to the trouble and pay for part that is useless. While it would be nice if blind people knew where their receipt was and select enter. It would have been more useful to invest in audio technology, considering the updated touch screen.
