![]() ![]() To use the new feature, customers simply log on to their app to request an access code. “We told them we can either negotiate or file a lawsuit as an alternative,” she said, “and they said, ‘We will be happy to talk to you.Wells Fargo customers can now deposit cash from any of the bank’s ATM machines around the country without a physical card.Īs an alternative, customers can access any of the bank's 13,000 ATMs using the Wells Fargo mobile app. She declined to disclose how much she and co-counsel Lainey Feingold will be paid for their legal work in the case, explaining that it was part of the settlement that is to be kept confidential. Account statements, product brochures, notices, loan applications and legal disclosures will be made available by audio, in Braille, large print or computer disc, or online, Dardarian said. The settlement also obligates Wells Fargo to make other banking information accessible to the visually impaired. The technology is not able to inform the user verbally of his or her balance, nor can the user communicate with the machine by voice. When one is selected, the machine audibly confirms it, she said. The voice explains the layout of the keypad and gives instructions in how the user can make different transactions. The technology that was eventually accepted includes earphones and a voice welcoming the customer to Wells Fargo. Negotiations with Wells Fargo took years to complete in part because the different parties had to evaluate various kinds of technology, Dardarian said. There is not a technological barrier, and there is no undue burden that the banks can show.” “It is pretty clear that the law-the Americans With Disabilities Act and the California Disabled Persons Act-requires equal access to ATM services,” she said. The talking machines will be introduced beginning next June, with locations of high customer use receiving them first, she said. “If there is an opportunity to earn more business and develop stronger relations with a certain segment of your customer base, why wouldn’t you want to do it?” he said.ĭardarian said her law office was pleased to reach a settlement without going to court. “We are just basking in what happened here.”Īlthough the talks could have ended in a lawsuit, Wells Fargo’s Haeg said the company quickly realized that talking ATMs represented a “business opportunity.” “I don’t know what we are going to do yet,” Skivers said. She said there are more than 500,000 legally blind residents of California. She and other blind plaintiffs, including the Council of the Blind, decided to target Wells Fargo because they bank with the financial services company.Ĭatherine Skivers, president of the advocacy group, said it has not yet decided whether to pursue similar programs with other banks. “I do it as little as possible, but if I don’t have a stranger do it, I have to have my friends do it. “It is scary,” the Bay Area resident said. Blind since birth, Martinez reads Braille but says that only allows her to obtain a small amount of “quick cash.”Īt times she has even resorted to asking strangers to help her at the cash machines, she said. Kathy Martinez, 40, one of the blind plaintiffs in the case, said she has long been frustrated by being unable to use ATMs by herself. If the machines succeed in California, the company will offer them to other regions around the nation, he said. ![]() Larry Haeg, a Wells Fargo spokesman, refused for “competitive reasons” to disclose the cost of providing talking ATMs. ![]()
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