Westpac to issue accessible cards for visually impaired

Westpac is rolling out a suite of new card designs to help make payments more accessible for blind or low vision customers.

The credit, debit and pre-paid cards will incorporate new accessibility elements, including different notches along the short edge to enable customers to distinguish their payment cards from one another using touch alone.

Using Mastercard’s Touch Card feature, the notches - square for credit card, round for debit card and triangular for pre-paid card - help customers to identify the card and orient the card correctly when using, such as making payments or using an ATM.