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Self-Serve Machines Fail to Serve Consumers with Disabilities

by Meagan Gillmore, Canadian Affairs


A new study shows the challenges consumers with disabilities face when using self-serve machines — and how those barriers can be fixed.


When grocery store employees ask Marcia Yale if she wants to use the self-checkout, she responds with her own question: “I say, ‘Well, do you want to use it?’”


Yale, who is completely blind, can only use self-checkout machines and other self-serve kiosks independently if the machine reads out what is on the screen. Finding accessibility features on most self-serve machines is nearly impossible, she says. The only ones she can use are bank-issued automatic teller machines.


“If [the self-serve machines are] just touchscreens with no audio, I can’t use them,” Yale said.


Self-serve machines have become a ubiquitous way to place restaurant orders, buy transit tickets or purchase groceries. But for many consumers with disabilities, they are self-serve in name only. These machines often do not have features to make them accessible for consumers with disabilities, or consumers cannot find these features.


This means a significant number of consumers cannot use self-serve machines independently. According to recent data, 27 per cent of Canadians report having one or more disability that negatively impacts their ability to do daily tasks.


Few guidelines exist about how to make self-serve machines accessible to consumers with disabilities. Each machine is different. Just because a blind individual knows how to turn on voice-over technology that reads out the words on an ATM screen does not mean they know how to access the same features at the self-checkout at the grocery store.


A recent study from the University of Waterloo seeks to better understand the problems consumers with disabilities face when using self-serve machines, and how those barriers can be fixed.


“We were really lacking the understanding of the experiences of people with disabilities and their usability concerns with these devices,” said Gaya Bin Noon, a PhD candidate in public health sciences and the study’s lead author.


The research was done in partnership with the CSA Group, formerly known as the Canadian Standards Association. The organization publishes voluntary guidelines, called standards, for various products and services. Companies and governments can use these standards if they want but are not required to do so unless the standards become law.


Accessibility for ATMs is mentioned in a standard, but there needs to be more guidance about accessibility for self-service machines in general, Bin Noon says.


Standards can be helpful even if they are not mandatory, Bin Noon says. Businesses want to know how to make their products accessible to consumers, and they can often make changes faster than standards can be enacted into law.


“Even though they’re voluntary, there is a need for them while we are waiting for regulations, and that need comes not only from the consumer, but from the business themselves,” she said.


In a statement to Canadian Affairs, a spokesperson for the CSA Group said a new edition of the accessibility standard for self-service machines is set to be published in early 2025. 


For the study, researchers interviewed 19 individuals — 17 of whom had disabilities — about the difficulties faced when using self-serve machines.


Participants mentioned the lack of consistency among machines. Wheelchair users noted that self-serve machines needed to be at a height that they can access. Participants with hearing difficulties said machines should have visual, as well as auditory, prompts and be in quiet areas.


Many also said it was hard to find staff who could help them. Their biggest concern was not that staff did not want to help — it was that staff were not there at all.


Staff need to be trained to show people what the accessibility features are on machines, they said. This can help consumers with disabilities use the machines independently.


People with disabilities want to use self-serve machines independently just like anyone else, says Leslie Yee, who was on the advisory group for the study.


Yee, who has macular degeneration and struggles to read most printed materials, often has store employees check her items out at the self-checkout for her. But this is not the optimal solution, she says.


“It takes away a person’s independence, of being able to do it for themselves,” she said. Yee would rather have someone show her how she can use the machines herself.


Many study participants said they would like a way to use their own devices, such as smartphones, at self-serve machines. This could allow them to use the accessibility features on their devices — such as downloaded apps — that they have set to meet their needs.


Marcia Yale, who is president of the advocacy group Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians, says advocates have talked about this idea since at least the mid-2000s.


Bin Noon says it still needs to be determined how people’s personal devices could be integrated with self-serve machines to make the machines more accessible.


And machines need built-in accessibility features themselves, she says. Integrated personal technology is not enough.


“It should not be an assumption that anyone with a disability who is going to interact with this [self-serve] device has the privilege of a smartphone with all these features,” she said. “It’s an important feature, but it should not be the only way of accommodating people with disabilities.”


Yee agrees. Yee, who is a vice-president of the consumer group Canadian Council of the Blind, says that no matter what technology is used, there will always be a need for employees who know how to help consumers with disabilities.


“You always have to have the option of a cashier regardless, because there is no one device that is a solution for all people with disabilities,” she said.



Featured image alt text: photo of a retail checkout machine

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