Interviews and discussion groups were organized to elicit the problem faced by people with disabilities. The groups included elderly, visually disabled, auditory disabled, intellectually disabled and motor disabled (lower limb and upper limb) populations, as well as a control group of non-elderly, non-disabled people.

All groups emphasised the need for a consistent method of operation when using terminals and, in particular, across all applications. For instance the different layout of numerical keys on a calculator and a telephone can be confusing for a blind person. There is also a need for effective instructions on how to use a terminal; many disabled users felt this was currently very inadequate.

Elderly Persons Of the elderly people interviewed, 83% had some form of cash card. Of that group, 50% had never used an ATM (cash dispenser), 10% had tried it once and 40% had used them more than once. Of the 40% who used ATMs, 75% were regular users. Of the total group that meant that 58% had never used a cashcard but 71% of them said they would like to. 92% had used public transport; although 46% of those users had used a ticket machine, all were infrequent users and had not used a ticket machine in the last month. 83% had used a public telephone of which 40% had used a card. Many of this group could see advantages in storing personal emergency medical information on their smart card, as long as this was only done with the individualšs permission. Physically Disabled The use of a contactless smart card instead of a key for door entry would have many advantages for those in wheelchairs, those with reduced strength and those with poor manual dexterity. For this group security appears to be a particularly important issue. Visually Disabled This group indicated a strong desire for the design of input devices, their location, layout of the terminal and function to be standardised. It should be possible to differentiate cards by touch; this might mean a notch if there is no embossing. They thought that card readers should all accept the cards in the same orientation. Also they would like keypads to provide tactile feedback. Finding locks and using keys was a problem for some of this group, and they felt that contactless smart cards could have significant benefit for them in this application. Another area in which visually disabled users thought that contactless smart cards could assist them was in turning on audible signals, and increasing the crossing time, at light-controlled pedestrian crossings.

Hearing Disabled This group wanted all information presented visually in addition to acoustic output. They also wanted all public telephones to have text telephony capability with the smart card giving access to the keyboard. Intellectually Disabled This group would like communication to be by menus which should be based on pictures in combination with spoken text, since many people with an intellectual disability cannot read or write. Many of those interviewed said that they had difficulty in remembering a PIN and found it almost impossible to keep it a secret; they expressed a preference for identification by fingerprint. On an ATM, it was suggested that the terminal should display what the balance in the account would be if the amount requested was withdrawn. On a telephone, they would find it useful to have a card with some telephone numbers pre-programmed. In the foreseeable future, there are three areas of smart card usage where the customer is expected to operate a self-service terminal, financial transactions (eg. a cash dispenser), telecommunications (eg. a public telephone) and public transport (eg. a ticket selling machine). The following sections concentrate on these examples.

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Text Descriptions of Images

1. Elderly woman using a ticket vending machine
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2. Older man using canes with young child
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3. Elderly man in wheelchair accessing ATM
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4. Elderly couple outdoors
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5. Man using wheelchair entering train
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6. Woman who is blind riding public transportation
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7. Elderly woman using ATM
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8. Elderly woman riding light rail system
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9. Man using wheelchair at payphone
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10. Diagram of the smart card, a credit card-like unit with a small metal chip embedded in it
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