Accessibility in the Payment Industry: A Priority for Valentin Haüy Association

By Manuel Pereira, Head of Accessibility at Valentin Haüy Association

During the Cartes Bancaires Summit at the end of March, Valentin Haüy Association reaffirmed its commitment to banking actors, industrial companies, and payment solution providers to emphasize a crucial point: payment devices and banking services must be accessible to all. The time has come to take concrete steps: accessibility should be an integral part of the quality of a payment service.

In recent years, electronic payment terminals (EPTs), online payment applications, ATMs, and bank automated teller machines (ATMs) have undergone rapid transformations. For example, EPTs are transitioning to touch screens, and e-commerce websites are proliferating. While innovation is welcome, it often comes at the expense of blind and visually impaired individuals. Today, when an EPT lacks tactile markers or voice guidance—common with entirely smooth touch screens—some blind or visually impaired individuals are often forced to reveal their PIN to a third party, forgo a purchase, or wait for external assistance to make a payment. Similarly, when an online payment application is not accessible, it halts the purchasing journey for a visually impaired person.

Innovation Should Not Compromise Accessibility

Since 2025, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) has imposed strict requirements on the accessibility of a wide range of products and services, including EPTs and e-commerce websites. The European goal is clear: standardize regulations, eliminate disparities, and ensure that every citizen can use essential tools in their daily life.

This European directive mandates online interfaces that are perceivable and usable without vision, clear and consistent payment processes, physically manipulable terminals accessible to all, and the integration of people with disabilities in the design phases.

It is no longer just a best practice but a legal obligation. Industrial companies and payment solution providers that commit to this today are gaining a competitive edge. Valentin Haüy Association has played a pivotal role for decades in evaluating and enhancing accessibility. Through its Evaluation and Research Center on Technologies for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CERTAM), the association tests, analyzes, and supports industrial companies and payment solution providers to make their hardware and software solutions—from EPTs to ATMs—truly usable for people with visual impairments.

We closely collaborate with banking actors, notably CB, to define concrete solutions. Beyond the legal requirement, accessibility is a true advantage for businesses. An accessible EPT or e-commerce application benefits everyone.

The future of payments is already being shaped: biometrics, enriched cards, mobile solutions, or dematerialized solutions. All these devices must integrate accessibility from the outset.

• Because an inaccessible payment method is not a finished product.
• Because an impossible journey to navigate alone is a loss of autonomy.
• Because accessibility is not an option but a right.

We encourage industrial companies, EPT manufacturers, fintech companies, and banking actors to make accessibility a cornerstone of their innovations.

(*) A business law graduate, Manuel Pereira, blind since birth, has worked as a corporate lawyer for six years. Passionate about universal access to information, he has been interested in new technologies to serve people with disabilities for a long time. In 2004, he introduced the first speech software for mobile phones in France. He also contributed to the first version of RGAA 1 and the creation of Daisy France 2. In 2015, he joined Oc&eacut;ane Consulting Web Experience as Sales Director, in charge of promoting the Digital Accessibility offer. He actively contributes to raising awareness among major companies about the importance of making their websites and mobile applications accessible to everyone. In 2016, he took over as Head of Digital Accessibility at Valentin Haüy Association, where he works daily to improve the digital accessibility of websites, mobile applications, payment methods, and other essential services. In 2018, he became one of the two founders of A11y Paris.