Our Community Has to Push” — Vispero Calls for Advocacy as Regulations Falls Short

Vispero is calling on the blind and low-vision community to step up public pressure on retailers and service providers, warning that the European Accessibility Act on its own will not deliver usable self-service technology for years to come.

Speaking to Double Tap’s Steven Scott after a recent visit to the Sight City conference in Frankfurt, Matt Ater, Senior Vice President of Corporate Business Development at Vispero, said payment terminals and kiosks remain one of the most stubborn accessibility challenges facing blind users across Europe — and that the legislation intended to fix them has built-in delays measured in decades.

“Even with the European Accessibility Act, many public-facing devices have years to comply,” Ater said, pointing out that some kiosks and ATMs are covered by grace periods of up to 20 years.
That gap between law and lived experience was a recurring theme in the conversation. Ater described encountering inaccessible restaurant ordering kiosks during his trip to Germany, the kind of everyday touchpoint that legislation is slow to reach. Legal compliance, he argued, sets only a floor — not an equitable experience.

His prescription is bottom-up rather than top-down. “The only way it’s going to change is if our community gets out and pushes more,” Ater said, urging users to use social media to raise awareness of the venues, devices, and brands that are failing them.

Resources:
– Vispero Official Website
https://www.vispero.com

– JAWS Screen Reader Product Page
https://www.freedomscientific.com/products/software/jaws

– European Accessibility Act Overview
https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1202