News and statements from banks and other organisations that have committed to supporting the introduction of talking ATMs across the UK
Barclays, Lloyds, Nationwide, LINK, Co-operative, RBS, VISA and Natwest have all joined the Make Money Talk campaign.
However HSBC and Santander have still not committed to adding voice assistance to their cash machines, if you're a customer take action and write to your bank asking them to make their cash machines accessible.
23 May 2013 - Co-operative bank roll out talking ATMs
The Co-operative Bank have today announced the launch of the first talking ATMs with high contrast screens for blind and partially sighted customers with the over 400 going live on the 23rd May.
The Bank will then launch over 1,000 ATMs with talking functionality by the end of 2013, with a further 1,000 planned for 2014. The 'talking ATM' functionality will eventually be available at all Co-operative Bank branch ATMs and at most ATMs at Co-operative Food stores. The service will be available to Link or Visa card holders from all banks.
10 April 2013 - RBS and Natwest roll out talking ATMs
RBS and NatWest are announcing in their 2012 Sustainability Report that they will be rolling out Talking ATMs for blind and partially sighted customers from early 2014, as part of an upgrade of their ATM network.
80 per cent of the 4,800 RBS and NatWest branded ATMs and in-branch Cash and Deposit machines will be speech enabled, with delivery completing in mid 2015. This is fanastic news as it means more blind and partially sighted people will be able to plug in their earphones to be verbally guided through their transactions and have independent access to their own money.
8 January 2013 - Co-operative Bank commits to introducing talking ATMs
We are pleased to receive this statement confirming the roll out of accessibility improvements to Co-operative Bank cash machines:
"At the Co-operative Bank we are committed to implementing talking and high contrast services on our cash machines. We're starting the roll out in February and by the end of 2013 we'll have 1,000 of our ATMs enabled to "talk". Our aim is to extend this out to over 2,000 cash machines which is three quarters of our entire estate by the end of 2014." David Fawell, Head Commercial Payments
9 November 2012 - VISA welcomes more talking cash machines
We are delighted to receive this statement from Visa:
"We welcome the expansion of talking ATMs in the UK market. Visa endeavours to ensure its products and services are as accessible as possible to all cardholders and the RNIB and Visa are committed to working together to address the needs of blind and partially sighted people in using ATMs"
7 November 2012 - Talking ATM roll out welcomed
"LINK welcomes the introduction of talking cash machines as a very important and exciting development which will undoubtedly help those with visual impairment get access to their cash" John Howells, Chief Executive of LINK Scheme
"As a leading supplier of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), Wincor Nixdorf fully supports RNIB's Make Money Talk campaign. We have been working with our customers to raise awareness of this issue and enable all members of society to have equal access to their money. The announcement by Barclays Bank that their machines will have audio facilities for blind and partially sighted people is a major step forward, and we will continue to work with the industry to drive further improvements." Wincor Nixdorf
5 November 2012 - Great news from Nationwide Building Society
Nationwide has announced its full support for RNIB's Make Money Talk campaign and plans to implement talking cash machines in its ATM network.
The Building Society has partnered with NCR, the world's largest ATM provider, to develop effective audio software, which it aims to deploy in 2013.
"This is terrific news and major progress for blind and partially sighted people across the country who need to use cash machines to access their money." Hugh Huddy, RNIB Campaigns Officer for Inclusive Society
2 November 2012 - Barclays rolls out talking ATMs
Barclays announce that it has fulfilled its commitment to make more than 75 per cent of its ATMs "talk".
Blind and partially sighted people can now take along their earphones and plug them into one of more than 3,000 Barclays speech enabled ATMs, and access their money.
Barclays was the first major bank to sign up to our Make Money Talk campaign launched in September 2011. Research found that the majority of blind and partially sighted people who wanted to access their own money needed to ask a friend or relative for help using the ATM (or in some cases a passer-by) or go into their branch during working hours.
"We are delighted Barclays has kept its promise and rolled out speech enabled ATMs, benefiting thousands of people with sight loss. We believe banks in the UK should provide ATMs with audio facilities for their blind and partially sighted customers, across their ATM networks, and now call for other banks to follow Barclays' example." Fazilet Hadi, RNIB Group Director of Inclusive Society.
Find your nearest Barclays talking ATM
Non-Barclays customers can also use the Barclays speech enables ATMs, located at its branches across England and Wales, including at selected Asda supermarkets. To find out the location of your nearest machine visit Barclay's branch finder page
If you haven't already told your bank that access to cash machines is important to you, now is the time to complain to your bank!
2 March 2012 - Lloyds announce their support
Lloyds bank announced on BBC Radio 4's MoneyBox programme they will join the campaign by committing to roll out talking ATMs next year.
22 November 2011 - Barclays commit to a full roll out
Barclays announced it will join the campaign by committing to roll out talking ATMs towards the end of 2012.
Speech output will be deployed on Barclays ATMs through audio jacks so that blind and partially sighted people will be able to plug in their earphones to listen to the options being read out to enable them to carry out their transactions