B.N.P. Paribas, France's largest bank is to make its A.T.M. services accessible for visually impaired people. Financial technology provider, Diebold has supplied 265 voice-enabled Opteva cash machines to the bank and these will be installed in its branches through the second quarter of 2006. The service will be available in six languages.

Diebold, a global leader in the financial self-service industry, has provided text-to-speech technology through its partnership with Nuance Communications, a global leader in speech and imaging solutions.

Nuance’s RealSpeak software guides visually impaired users through transactions and simulates a natural voice that's easy to understand. The system also notifies users when an error has occurred during the transaction. Other accessibility features include headphone jacks and a standardised A.T.M. keypad.

French financial conglomerate Societe Generale bank is also making its banking services more accessible for the disabled, which include vocal synthesis technology in A.T.M.s to assist visually impaired users.