That is one of lifes unanserable questions…
Well, I’m not American so I don’t know, but can’t pedestrians use the drive-up ATM’s? I mean, is it illegal to walk up and use one? If not then they are covering their bases; a blind person MAY walk up and use one.
Just the same as children’s cold medicine. There are warnings that the medicine may cause drowsiness, so you shouldn’t drive or use heavy machinery. Why put that warning on kid’s medicine? Because there’s no law saying that adults can’t drink the stuff. They, again, are covering their bases.
Yea but they have walk up ones so you don’t get hit by a car.
Yes, but what would it accomplish? How could a blind person read the screen? I’ve yet to see an ATM that talks, but every one that I’ve ever encountered has braille dots on the keys.
First thread title in ages to make me LOL. 
I would guess that they have a standard keypad that they get from the manufacturer. The walk-ups predated the drive-ups IIRC so they probably have a set model they use with the braille on it. Why design a new one at additional expense just to eliminate something that nobody’s really going to care about?
Unanswerable??? O ye of little faith, this is the official home of Cecil Adams – The World’s Smartest Human Being! And on page 10 of The Straight Dope Tells All – available at book stores everywhere – Unca Cece informs us, in Why is there braille on drive-up teller machines?, that a blind person is perfectly able to ride in a car as a passenger, and, for example, use the ATM from the back seat.
I’ve also heard this explained this way: The blind person sits in the back seat, and his or her sighted friend drives up to the ATM so the blind person can conduct his or her business privately.
Doesn’t solve the problem of onscreen displays that say “Press this button ----->” for this function or that, though.
Most ATMs have a pretty basic setup, and a blind customer can easily learn the pattern on a particular one. Barring that, the sighted driver can look back and say, “Press the second one down on the left if you want a receipt.”
From my perspective – I have this thing about not knowing other people’s passwords. I turn around when people type in their screensaver passwords at work, even if I can’t actually see the keyboard. I just don’t want to know them. So even if she wanted me to punch all the other buttons on the ATM, I still made her punch in her own PIN. Hence the Braille.
Diceman, I saw the first talking ATM I’ve ever seen just the other day. It’s in a First Union bank near my office, and not only has a talking function, it has a headphone jack!
Wow! They do exist!
Why is this a mystery to people? Drive-through ATMs are simply made from the same molds and such as booth ATMs. Why wouldn’t they be?
I’ve seen some such ATM’s that have instructions printed below the screen-I suspect that these are instructions to replace the onscreen instructions, although not knowing Braille, I have to admit that they could just as well be an apple pie recipe or something.
I’ve seen some such ATM’s that have instructions printed below the screen-I suspect that these are instructions to replace the onscreen instructions, although not knowing Braille, I have to admit that they could just as well be an apple pie recipe or something.
I’m in total agreement with ArchiveGuy. The answer is simple: drive-up ATMs have braille on the keypads because it’s cheaper and easier for ATM manufacturers to make just one type of keys for all their ATMs. It’s a decision of economics.