New Technology to Overcome Accessibility Barriers to Public Digital Terminals, Such as ATMs

MADRID, March 31, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --



Within the context of the APSIS4all Project, funded by the European Commission 

• Technosite and "la Caixa" design a solution to personalise ATMs 
  
• The solution has been developed by Technosite -a company specialised in accessible technology and part of the business group of ONCE and its Foundation- and "la Caixa", in order to overcome accessibility barriers to public digital terminals. 

Spanish company Technosite  - specialised in accessible technology and part of the business group of ONCE and its Foundation - and "la Caixa" have presented the APSIS4all project in Madrid, a solution to adapt public digital terminals such as automatic teller machines (ATMs), to users' needs and preferences.

     (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140331/677865 )

The project's objective is to overcome accessibility barriers experienced by people with disabilities, older people and people unfamiliar with the technology when interacting with electronic devices available for public use.

Currently, APSIS4all has two pilots in the European market. The first is deployed in the German city of Paderborn, where the company Höft & Wessel installed 24 transport ticket vending machines.

The second is an initiative developed in Spain by Technosite and "la Caixa", which are already available in about 1,300 "la Caixa" ATMs. These machines offer forms of interaction adapted to different profiles, such as a sign language avatar, high-contrast text displays with large text and buttons, a screen reader or keyboard navigation. They are options that enhance the user experience with the terminal, and can be especially useful for people with disabilities.

The solution developed by Technosite and "la Caixa" can be used to customise and make more accessible all kinds of public digital terminals, such as self-checkout lanes, information and retail kiosks, electronic points of sale, or payment terminals, etc.

This initiative is funded by the European Commission under the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP) as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP).

Twelve organizations participate in this project through a consortium which include partners from countries such as Spain (Technosite, "la Caixa", Barcelona Digital), Germany (Höft & Wessel, PaderSprinter GmbH, SoVD - State Association Lower Saxony e.V.), United Kingdom (John Gill LTD, AbilityNet), Italy (Fondazione Ugo Bordoni), Greece (Centre for Research and Technology Hellas / Informatics and Telematics Institute), France (Egal Plus) and Austria (Center for Usability Research and Engineering).

Contact: +34-91-545-0193, Marta Ochoa, mochoa@servimedia.net, Rocio Barrie, rbarrie@servimedia.net