Personalization of Braille cards

We are proud to share that we have put together a set of technical and procedural means that will allow our customers (bank and non-bank) to have the personalization of their cards printed in Braille.

There are over twenty thousand blind people in Portugal. However, the issue of accessibility goes far beyond numbers. Giving everyone the possibility of a day-to-day life without obstacles, providing equal technological facilities and promoting individual autonomy is what drives us.

Technically, when it comes to bank cards, the application of braille personalization brings some challenges in terms of the integrity of the antenna that allows contactless use. However, these challenges have been overcome by the processes and technology we employ.

Since braille characters are larger than normal characters, it is practically impossible to put all the information (card number, CVV, expiry date or other) on the card in braille. In addition, because braille personalization is carried out by impacting the surface of the card, it can damage the contactless antenna. Therefore, as a solution, we propose the use of two cards:

Card for use in person

With all the technological options of an EMV Contactless card (magnetic stripe, chip and antenna) that allow it to be used in vending machines and POS, this card has information about its type (debit, credit or other) and card number printed in braille. Additional information is printed on the back in standard characters, which can be larger than usual.

Card for use with online purchases

It has all the necessary information for online purchases (card number, name, expiry date and CVV) printed in Braille. This is possible because there aren't so many space restrictions, since this card doesn't have any technology built in (antenna, band or chip), it's just informative.

In addition to the cards, we are rapidly equipping our production area with the necessary machines to print cardmail or terms and conditions in Braille. This way, all the information on the card can also be understood without having to rely on third parties.

In addition to Braille printing, we have long recommended the use of cards with cut-outs to help customers identify the position of the card to insert into ATMs more quickly. This will be another opportunity to reinforce this point.

We are counting on our customers to help us apply this possibility and give all their end consumers the same autonomy in accessing all the features.