Accessibility and Bank Services : major French banks CIC and Crédit Mutuel choose Acapela’s synthetic voice to facilitate use of their ATMs

French Banks CIC and Crédit Mutuel are improving  Accessibility to their banking services by making their ATM (Automated Teller Machine) accessible to the visually impaired with Acapela’s synthetic voice.

This is another initiative that helps clients to use their services autonomously and to take advantage of the availability of their cash dispensing machines 24/7.By integrating synthetic voice these banks choose to vocally accompany their clients and simplify their daily lives.

By having chosen Acapela Group’s text-to-speech , Euro Information, the subsidiary of the Crédit Mutuel-CIC group which manages the ATMs, has favoured a technology which will allow it to quickly respond to a growing demand for improved accessibility services with very natural voices.

New ATMs are equipped with a jack-socket which is easy to locate and a keypad with keys specifically designed so they can be identified by the visually impaired and the blind. When the client plugs in his headphones or earphones (jack socket 3.5mm) the ATM switches from showing information on the screen to a money withdrawal service with vocal assistance. Today, thanks to Acapela’s synthetic voice, users are guided throughout the process with a natural voice that can be easily understood. Vocal instructions guide the client in the choice of language used (French/English), in the insertion of the bank card, in the keying in and confirmation of the amount to be withdrawn, in the keying in of their confidential code, and in the retrieval of the money, the ticket and the bank card. It is also possible to obtain vocal assistance in case problems arise when using the cash dispenser.

This vocal accompaniment will be installed on 1300 ATMs in 2008 and all new cash dispensers will be automatically equipped with Acapela’s synthetic voice.

“Acapela Group has been committed for a long time to serve the Accessibility community. We are proud to have been selected by Euro Information to help ease the daily lives of thousands of users. This implementation of Acapela’s synthetic voice on numerous ATMs in France and its overseas dependencies is fully in line with Acapela’s philosophy of making information available to everyone”, says Lars Erik Larsson, CEO of Acapela Group.