Westpac, Australia’s oldest bank, has recently increased their efforts to make their cards more accessible for customers who are blind or have low vision. Their new designs for credit, debit, and prepaid cards include a number of accessibility elements, most notably different notches along the short edge of the card. This allows customers to easily distinguish between the cards as they no longer have to rely on colour or text-based cues.
The square notches for credit cards, round notches for debit cards, and triangular notches for prepaid cards also assist customers in recognizing which end of the card to insert into machines.
The new suite of card designs, each with a distinct braille marker, will be gradually introduced to customers.
Annabel Fribence, Westpac’s chief brand and marketing officer, claimed the new cards would simplify payments for all.
“Our strategy is to create new cards with simple but innovative features that will drastically improve the day-to-day experiences of many visually impaired Australians, and further, to build accessible products and services that benefit all customers,” Ms Fribence said.
“We already have a range of initiatives in place to build on, including accessibility mode on all our EFTPOS Now terminals, online applications that abide by accessibility requirements, and accessible digital card functionality for customers using voice-over and talk back.”
