Westpac is launching a new suite of credit, debit and pre-paid cards designed to make payments more accessible for blind or low vision customers.
The cards incorporate new accessibility elements, including different notches along the short edge that allows customers to distinguish their payment cards from one another using touch alone.
Using Mastercard’s Touch Card feature, the notches – square for credit card, round for debit card and triangular for pre-paid card – are intended to help customers identify the card and orient the card correctly when using, such as making payments or using an ATM.
The cards also include a braille marker, providing another tactile feature to help blind or low vision customers distinguish between credit, debit and prepaid cards.
Westpac brand and marketing officer, Annabel Fribence, said the cards will assist with identifying the right card quickly so all customers can use their payment cards with confidence. “All Westpac customers can identify their payment cards by either sight or touch.”
The new cards build on initiatives already in place such as accessibility mode on Westpac EFTPOS Now terminals, online applications that meet accessibility and accessible digital card functionality when customers use voice-over and talk back.
Blind Citizens Australia CEO Sally Aurisch, said measures like this can go a long way to giving customers who are blind or vision impaired extra 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,” she said.