It can be frustrating to fumble through your wallet, looking for the right card to make a payment at checkout. For people who are blind or live with low vision, it can be doubly difficult. Standardised sizes and shapes make it tough to distinguish one card from another, and asking or waiting for assistance selecting the right one takes away the user’s independence.
That’s why it’s such great news that Australian bank Westpac has launched a new range of bank cards, specifically designed for people who live with vision impairment.
The credit, debit and pre-paid cards will incorporate new accessibility elements, including different notches along the short edge to enable customers to distinguish their payment cards from one another using touch alone.
Westpac Chief Brand and Marketing Officer, Annabel Fribence, said: “The features of the new cards are a simple but innovative step forward that will make a big difference in the day-to-day lives of many blind or low vision Australians. Now all Westpac customers can identify their payment cards by either sight or touch.”
Using Mastercard’s Touch Card™ feature, the notches – square for credit card, round for debit card and triangular for pre-paid card – help customers to identify the card and orient the card correctly when making payments or using an ATM.
The cards will also include a Braille marker, providing another tactile feature to help blind or low vision customers distinguish between credit, debit and prepaid cards.
Blind Citizens Australia CEO, Sally Aurisch, said: “The new card features showcase the simple yet impactful measures that we can take to improve the accessibility of everyday life for people who are blind or vision impaired. Measures like this can go a long way to giving customers who are blind or vision impaired that extra bit of confidence and independence when stepping up to the payment counter. It is encouraging to see such innovative features being used to make accessibility a priority.”
