CaixaBank and ONCE improve the bank's touch POS terminals’ accessibility for blind people

• Both entities, via Comercia Global Payments, have implemented a new functionality that provides people with visual impairments further independence when purchasing at establishments through new generation touch POS terminals with Android technology.
• The initiative increases autonomy for people who cannot read the numbers on the screens of touch POS terminals provided by establishments, thus minimising their dependence on other people to make payments.
• The launch of the new service will further strengthen CaixaBank’s leadership in retail services, a sector in which the bank has a market share of 31.1%, and upwards of 310,000 Android POS terminals.

CaixaBank, via Comercia Global Payments, the leading services provider in Spain, has implemented a new functionality that enables blind people to make purchases with increased security at establishments with touch POS terminals. This functionality, launched in collaboration with ONCE, will be updated automatically on all latest generation Android POS terminals (tactile devices, without buttons) provided by CaixaBank to establishments. As a result, the bank reinforces the safety of payments made by people with visual impairments, who currently depend on others to make them and enter their PIN.

This new functionality allows for the activation of the "Accessible Mode" on the POS terminal by tapping twice on the button located at the bottom left corner of the payment screen. Once activated, a voiceover informs of the amount to be paid and gives instructions on how to pay by card. If the transaction requires a PIN, a special screen will appear, where a voiceover gives instructions on how to introduce the code.

After successfully implementing the "Accessible Mode" in trial businesses, this new functionality is already available for newly activated POS terminals. An update will be rolled out starting in December and ending in the first quarter of 2024 for terminals that had already been activated.

Android POS, the latest generation of CaixaBank's POS terminals

With this new functionality, CaixaBank and Comercia Global Payments reinforce their Android POS product, which enables and improves efficacy in the management of payments to professionals and self-employed workers, businesses and companies.

This POS model has multiple functionalities built into the terminal that allow businesses to receive payments in the customers' currency, easily split a bill by using the calculator integrated in the payment process or to collaborate with social action programmes by rounding up payments for charity purposes, among other options.

It also has a wide range of applications available that enable it to offer valuable services other than the payment itself.

Technology and innovation are essential to CaixaBank, who works on a daily basis towards developing new models able to meet the requirements and needs of its customers and that bring closer its products, services and financial culture to all citizens. 

Commitment to accessibility

This launch is added to the "Braille Pack", a service implemented by CaixaBank through its subsidiary specialising in payment methods, CaixaBank Payments & Consumer, and in collaboration with ONCE. The "Braille Pack", initiated last year, is designed so that people with visual impairments can use any type of card issued with Braille reading/writing code. This is a step forward in its commitment to be an inclusive and accessible bank for everyone.

The bank understands accessibility in a broad sense, which means not only offering its customers the largest possible number of channels to access its products and services but also working to ensure that these channels can be used by the largest possible number of people. It is thus working to eliminate any physical and sensorial barriers that may prevent people with disabilities from accessing its facilities or its products and services.

In this line, most of CaixaBank's branches (86% at present) apply the "no barriers" concept, which consists in eliminating any elevation between footpaths and the inside of its establishments or, falling short of this, remedying them with ramps or elevators. Likewise, 99% of the bank's branch network has been adapted for people with disabilities, including the possibility for people with visual impairments to use voice-guided navigation as well as providing them with a Braille keyboard.

Accessibility also applies to digital channels. For example, the CaixaBankNow mobile app includes colour contrasts and font sizes suitable for people with low vision.

About Comercia Global Payments

Comercia Global Payments offers the best technological and software solutions for payment management and processing, through solid alliances and a strong commitment to our clients and employees. As a joint venture between CaixaBank and Global Payments, Comercia Global Payments shares the objectives of these companies by offering the best and most complete payment management service to the largest number of clients and partners to satisfy their needs with flexibility and a high capacity for adaptation.

With the launch of this new functionality, Comercia Global Payments strengthens its position as a leading payment service provider in Spain.

Innovation, continuous improvement and exceeding our customers' expectations are among the company's main values, a reference axis for the entire organization and the key to our management model.

About ONCE

ONCE is a social Public Law Corporation with legal personality and full capacity to operate and self-organise. Its social purposes are aimed at achieving the independence and full integration of blind Spanish people and people with severe visual impairment by providing social services. It carries out delegated functions of the public authorities under the State's supervision across Spain. Since its inception more than eight decades ago, ONCE has taken significant steps in the social inclusion of blind people and people with severe visual impairment, offering them the opportunity of obtaining a decent job and financial independence.