French Banks CIC and Crédit Mutuel are improving accessibility to their banking services by making their ATMs accessible to the visually impaired with Acapela Group’s text-to-speech-driven synthetic voices.

Euro Information, the subsidiary of the Crédit Mutuel-CIC group that manages the ATMs, will equip new ATMs with jack-sockets and keypads specifically designed for the blind and visually impaired. When a client plugs his headphones or earphones into the jack socket, the ATM switches from showing information on the screen to a vocal assistance service. With it, the client is guided with vocal instructions in either French or English on how to insert his bank card, enter and confirm the amount to be withdrawn, enter his PIN code, and retrieve his money, ticket, and bank card.

This vocal accompaniment will be installed on 1,300 existing ATMs this year. All new ATMs installed will be automatically equipped with the voice technology.