People with disabilities
In developed countries, the prevalence of various groups is:
| Group |
Prevalence per thousand population |
| Blind |
1 |
| Low vision |
13 |
| Wheelchair users |
10 |
| Cannot walk without aid |
56 |
| Cannot use fingers |
1 |
| Reduced strength |
27 |
| Reduced co-ordination |
14 |
| Dyslexia (severe) |
10 |
| Intellectually impaired |
37 |
| Elderly |
100 |
It is not uncommon for an individual to have more than one disability; this is particularly so among older people. Older persons, who make up over 10% of the population, are likely to be significant users of services such as public transport.
Electronic purses are not necessarily disadvantageous to people with disabilities. People with reduced strength or reduced co-ordination would have significant problems with handling many of the electronic wallets or balance readers but they may find an electronic purse easier to manage than a handful of coins.
People with an intellectual impairment will have significant problems handling money in an abstract form such as an electronic purse, and would require special training in its use.
The group with the most obvious problems are those with impaired vision. Difficulty in reading visual displays will make it very difficult to handle electronic purse systems as they are currently designed.
What can be done to help?
For visually impaired persons, the main problems with electronic purse systems relate to the user interface. In particular many of the devices (eg balance readers, wallets) have poor contrast visual displays which also pose problems for many elderly persons. One possibility would be to have special versions of the balance readers and wallets for those who cannot read the standard version.