By Bill Miller
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 29, 2001

Chevy Chase Bank yesterday promised to install voice-guided automated teller machines at more than 500 area locations within three years, acting in the wake of a federal lawsuit filed by three blind men and advocacy groups for the blind.

Advocates hailed the decision, saying Chevy Chase Bank will become the area's first financial institution to make such machines readily available to the public.

Blind customers will be able to use their own headsets to plug into ATMs, getting step-by-step instructions on how to withdraw cash and complete other transactions.

"I hope that this will be a model for other banks in the area," said Elaine Gardner, a plaintiffs' attorney who is from the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. "These will be the very first ATM machines that many blind people use."

Chevy Chase is the largest bank based in the region, with more than 180 branches and more than 800 ATMs in the District, Maryland and Virginia. Bank officials said they will start a pilot program within six months using 20 voice-guided ATMs, then will begin retrofitting hundreds of other ATMs with technology developed by NCR Corp.

Numerous banks throughout the country have begun introducing voice-guided ATMs in response to pressure from the Baltimore-based National Federation of the Blind and other groups. The nation's first such ATM was put into use in 1999 in San Francisco. Since then, several large financial institutions have been installing the special machines or making plans to do so. Roughly 1.1 million Americans are legally blind.

Federal officials are considering a proposed guideline that would specifically require voice-guided ATMs under the Americans With Disabilities Act. Advocates said that most blind people cannot read the Braille that is displayed on current ATMs.

Chevy Chase Bank agreed to install voice-guided, or "talking," ATMs after discussions with the National Federation of the Blind and the Disability Rights Council of Greater Washington. Those groups -- along with three blind bank patrons -- filed suit against Chevy Chase last year, seeking an order that would force changes. Instead of fighting the suit, bank officials decided to amicably work out a plan to address the groups' concerns.

The bank was targeted because it operates the area's largest ATM network and because its machines are at prime locations used by the public throughout Washington, advocates said. The first 20 voice-guided machines will be at airports, museums and Union Station.

Curtis Chong, the National Federation of the Blind's technology director, said ATMs can be equipped at reasonable cost, "from a few hundred dollars to a couple thousand" apiece. Banking industry officials, however, pegged the cost at $1,000 to $3,000 per machine.

According to the lawsuit, many blind patrons have been forced to rely on others to do their banking for them, forcing them to reveal their personal identification numbers. Others have managed by memorizing the sequence of keys at certain machines.

The federation filed a similar suit last year against Diebold Inc., the nation's leading manufacturer of ATMs. Diebold agreed to install voice-guided ATMs at four Rite Aid pharmacies in Washington and is working with the federation on new technology.

The individual plaintiffs in the Chevy Chase Bank case were James Gashel, of Baltimore, a federation lobbyist; Raymond Raysor, of Landover, who owns a snack shop in the Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building in the District; and Donald Galloway, of Northwest Washington, a disabilities rights coordinator for the D.C. government.