Westpac reveals major update making bank cards more accessible for blind and vision impaired people

One of Australia’s biggest banks has unveiled a major update to its credit and debit cards that’s intended to help a disadvantaged group to manage their money.

Westpac has updated its bank cards with ‘simple yet impactful’ changes to make them more accessible for blind and low vision customers.

The new designs on credit, debit and prepaid cards have a number of accessibility elements, most notably different notches along the short edge of the card to help distinguish one from another.

The notches – square for credit card, round for debit card and triangular for prepaid card – also help customers with sight problems identify which end of the card to insert into machines.

Each card also includes a braille marker to further help distinguish between them.

Westpac has updated its bank cards to make them more accessible for blind and low vision customers. A woman is pictured walking with a guide dog

The new suite of card designs will be progressively rolled out to customers.

There are around 575,000 people who are visually impaired in Australia, 60,000 of whom are permanently blind.

Westpac’s chief brand and marketing officer Annabel Fribence said the cards would ‘make payments easier for everyone’.

‘The features of the new cards are a simple but innovative step forward that will make a big difference in the day-to-day lives of many blind or low vision Australians,’ she said.

‘Our strategy is to continue to develop products and services that are accessible to all customers.

‘This builds on a range of initiatives we already have in place such as accessibility mode on all our EFTPOS Now terminals, online applications that meet accessibility requirements and accessible digital card functionality when customers use voice-over and talk back,’ Ms Fribence said.

She added that it’s important to make payments easier for everyone 

Westpac has said it is important to make using its services easier to use for everyone. A woman is pictured using an ATM

‘Now all Westpac customers can identify their payment cards by either sight or touch.’ 

The new card is a ‘simple yet impactful’ measure for those who are vision impaired according to Blind Citizens Australia chief executive Sally Aurisch.

‘Measures like this can go a long way to giving customers who are blind or vision impaired that extra bit of confidence and independence when stepping up to the payment counter,’ she said.

‘It is encouraging to see such innovative features being used to make accessibility a priority.’