Practical Challenges of Implementing Accessibility Laws and Standards in the Self-service Environment

Self-service technologies (SSTs) must be accessible to anyone, anywhere, anytime. This leads to an interesting challenge in terms of ensuring their accessibility to people with disabilities. There are various laws, standards and guidelines aiming to describe the minimum requirements that make SSTs accessible for everyone, for example by requiring specific height and depth to interface elements and controls, requiring private audio guidance, and requiring that interface elements are tactile enough to be discoverable and identifiable by touch. In this paper, we reflect on the experiences of implementing these various accessibility requirements from an industrial perspective, and demonstrate difficulties and successes through three different case studies. The first describes the development of the tactile symbols on ATM (Automated Teller Machine) keypad, which became a de facto standard and eventually a codified legal requirement. The second case study describes a research project to make ATM touchscreens accessible for people with visual impairments, and the impact accessibility laws and standards had on the project. The third case study takes a look at the height and depth requirements for ATMs worldwide to demonstrate the challenges of their implementation and the urgent need for harmonization. Finally, broader conclusions will be drawn between the gap that can exist between standards writers and the industries that must use them, with suggestions being made as to how this process can be improved.