BNP Paribas Group Selects Diebold's Opteva

PARIS - Diebold has supplied BNP Paribas Group, a French financial institution, with 265 Opteva automated teller machines (ATMs) that are accessible to all of its customers, including those who are visually impaired.  The ATMs will be deployed in the bank's branches through the second quarter of 2006.

"BNP Paribas reaffirms our commitment to guarantee accessibility for our customers with Opteva ATMs," said Jean-Paul Perrin, director of BNP Paribas' "Accueil et Services" program, which focuses on accessibility at the bank's branches.  "Diebold's ATM design focuses as much on the product's usability as it does on appearance."

BNP Paribas launched a large-scale deployment of the Diebold voice-guidance system with its Opteva terminals.

Diebold provides text-to-speech technology through its partnership with Nuance Communications, Inc.  Diebold's Opteva ATMs are endorsed by the United States' National Federation of the Blind (NFB).

By leveraging Nuance's RealSpeak™ text-to-speech technology, Diebold provides accessibility at the ATM.  RealSpeak guides visually impaired users through transactions and simulates a voice, enabling transactions such as cash withdrawals, deposits and account balances.  The system also notifies ATM users when an error has occurred during the transaction.

Other accessibility features include a more consistent transaction flow, pronounced bezels for card readers and headphone jacks, a single-style keypad and grouping of primary and secondary transaction functions.  Opteva terminals are built with a standard headphone jack and the necessary hardware to enable audio capability for users with visual impairments.

Diebold's Opteva ATMs are powered by Agilis, Diebold's open software platform.  A multi-vendor software solution, Agilis supports a wide variety of languages.  By joining Nuance with Agilis, text-to-speech capabilities can be provided in up to six languages on an ATM.