Mastercard has announced that they are releasing a new style of card for people who are blind or have vision impairment, the company announced.
The card will be available in 2022 and will use physical notches to help people who use touch to distinguish what card it is and how to insert them correctly, the Wall Street Journal reported.
According to Mastercard, the debit cards will have a squarelike notch, credit cards will have a rounded notch, and the prepaid card will have a triangular notch.
Mastercard’s chief marketing and communications officer Raja Rajamannar said the announcement from the company is to expand on existing designs without making them too complex.
“If you are partly impaired, or totally impaired, you don’t need to learn a lot,” Mr. Rajamannar said. “All you need to see is OK, there are different shapes.”
Some banks and other card issuers have already offered designs with a notch on the side as well as other features to help the seeing impaired.
Barclays PLC provides a debit card with a notch and a bright stripe and arrow to indicate how to insert the card.
To create their card, Mastercard worked with the Royal National Institute of Blind People in the U.K. and a nonprofit Visions/Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired in the U.S.
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The company asked both organizations what was problematic with existing cards that aim to help those who are visually impaired, the company said, the Journal reported.
This led to Mastercard opting not to use Braille on its new cards called Touch Cards. They said the research found that many who are blind don’t use it.
Another benefit of the new card could be security for those with vision problems, as they will not need to ask strangers for help in identifying which card to use, the Journal reported.
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