Scientific and technological reports

Tactile Identifier

Dr. John Gill, Chief Scientist, RNIB
October 1995

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Blind persons can have problems in selecting the correct orientation for inserting a card in a reader; this is a particular problem with telephone cards since they do not usually have any embossing. Some telephone companies have put a notch in their cards but unfortunately they have all done it in different places and often with too small a notch to be detected reliably by touch.

Standardization

Over the last few years there have been various attempts to develop a standard for these notches. At long last a proposed detailed standard has been produced by CEN (the European standards organisation) in liaison with ETSI (European tele-communications Standards Institute), ITU (International telecommunications Union) and ISO (International Organisation for Standardization).

The Notch

The proposal is for a notch 2mm in depth on the short side of ID-1 cards; ID-1 cards include most telephone cards, credit cards, cash dispenser cards and smart cards. The proposal does not make the use of the notch mandatory but does require that if a notch is used then it should be in the position and of the size specified.

The proposal does not mention thin flexible cards, as used by many public transport companies, but does not stop them using the same notch.

Optical cards are not in general use for self-service machines but have a problem in that a 2 mm notch could interfere with the area used for data storage.

The proposed standard only applies to cards which must be presented to a card reading device in a specific orientation.

The standard tactile identifier shall be a 2mm (± 0.1 mm) deep, segment-shaped edge indentation with a radius of 12 mm (± 0.1 mm) in the right hand short edge of the card, its centre located 15 mm (± 0.1 mm) from the lower long edge and 10 mm (± 0.1 mm) outside the right hand short edge of the card. The corners of the indentation where it meets the straight edge shall be rounded (r=0.5 mm) to avoid sharp corners that may cause injury.

This proposal is likely to be submitted for formal enquiry before the end of 1995. If there are no significant adverse responses, it could become a mandatory standard in 1997.

October 1995