Am I missing something? Drive-thru tellers are always on the driver’s side. Assuming the blind person is a passenger, not the driver (a highly presumptuous assumption), he’d have to exit the car and walk around to the other side. Besides not making use of the drive-up convenience, it would seem to be downright inconvenient for him.
It’s even more inconvenient to make and install different keypads depending on if an ATM is drive-through vs. walk-up.
Or they could be in the rear seats at the same side as the driver. I’m not blind - but when I first moved to the US, I used to get a cab to the bar and go through the ATM beforehand and used to sit behind the driver (or at least, scootch along the back seat) and use the ATM from the rear seats.
Blind people are allowed to drive around here. There’s even signs warning people that the blind drive.
The Americans with Disabilities Act requires, among other things, that any new ATMs (as well as a variety of other “public accommodations”) be labeled in Braille. As a result, they now leave the manufacturer that way. It is possible to get a waiver of the requirement, but it would almost certainly cost the bank more money (plus bureaucratic delay) than just leaving the Braille labels on.
I know someone who works at an Air Force base – where the elevator to the control tower has Braille labels on the controls, for the same reason.
All this strikes me as nanny-statism gone off the deep end, because the benefits are not worth the costs. But I’m sure someone is going to be mad at me for saying so.
Friends and I used to go through drive-thru ATMs backwards during off-hours so that the passenger could use the machine.
Cars aren’t the only way to access drive-through ATMs. There isn’t a trapdoor that will open if there isn’t sufficient weight on the asphalt when the machine is activated.
It’s probably still more convenient than going inside to a teller just to make a simple transaction.
I’m not mad, I just never understood this argument. It is probably easier for manufacturing reasons. I’ve never been in a control tower, but are there no support position that a blind person could do? Also it such a minor thing to be bothered by.
What costs? A few bumpy labels and keycaps on new machines (well, new as of, what, 23 years ago)? Manufacturers spend more than that on purely aesthetic redesigns. Besides, an ATM is an ATM, whether it’s in a drive-through installation or not. It would be silly to stock Braille and non-Braille machines (or elevator keypads, for that matter).
Really, it’s hard to imagine a cheaper accomodation.
And they drive in the midst of slow children who are playing! :eek:
Story from a London tour guide: He had answered a question about the beeping sound at the intersection to alert the blind that the light was green. The tourist said, “Oh, that’s interesting. In America, the blind aren’t allowed to drive.”
That’s nothing, I heard someone complaining about the tactile paving used to indicate to the visually impaired that they are at a pedestrian crossing, because they were “uncomfortable to walk on”.
I had no words.
Isn’t the best answer to this: Because cars have back seats?
We tend to lean to the most correct answer in these parts, not the easiest or “best”.
and, on occasion, I’ve stood in line with the line of cars to use the machine. The drivers are amused, but they clearly understand the situation. Fast food joints generally don’t like it when you do that sort of thing since they are always open when the drive-thru is open…aren’t they?
Nope, often they keep the drive-thru open late at night when the eat-in section is closed. And I believe most drive-thru places won’t hand food to anyone not in a car because they don’t want the risk of someone getting hit.
Cecil’s article implies that ATM manufacturers and banks are on the verge of new technology that will make it easier for the blind to use ATMs (braille keys alone don’t make the machines accessible; how are they supposed to read the screen?) But then I noticed that the column was written almost 20 years ago and I haven’t noticed that the machines are appreciably different today, except for touch-screens (not blind friendly!).
There are a lot of ATMs around here with headphone ports for people who can’t read the screen.
I agree with this. I’ve gone through backwards so a passenger could use the machine. I don’t think that’s uncommon. Now whether enough people do that, people who are driving blind passengers so the passenger can use the ATM, I don’t know.