Thales addresses inclusivity with its Voice Payment Card

A payment innovation that brings autonomy and convenience to visually impaired people.

• Based on its secure payment and connectivity expertise, Thales developed a solution to protect visually impaired people from fraud or mistakes made at shops.
• Thanks to the Thales Gemalto Voice Payment Card, blind and visually impaired people will enjoy a trusted and autonomous experience for their daily payments, as the innovative card vocalises the amount of each transaction before its validation.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 12 December 2022

Today, most banking services are not adapted for people with disabilities. 90% of visually impaired people have once in their life faced fraud or encountered a mistake at a point of sale. This statistic prompted Thales to develop a solution which offers trust and autonomy to people with impaired vision in their daily payment experiences. This unique innovation that vocalises each step of a transaction is now certified by Visa and Mastercard.

There is a global commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion to build a better environment for all. In collaboration with its partner Handsome1, Thales decided to use its innovation to offer inclusive solutions in the payment area. To benefit from it, Voice Payment Card users just have to install an app on their mobile phone, which is uniquely associated with their card. Each time they make a payment, the mobile app vocalises the amount of the transaction before letting users validate it with their secret code.

The Thales Voice Payment Card works as a connected device that gets the amount from the point of sales terminal and communicates it to the mobile app via Bluetooth. The customer can then hear the information either through the phone’s speaker or through earphones. This one-of-a-kind solution is about to be commercialized soon by several banks, convinced of its interest.

“At Thales, we know innovation has the potential to solve a multitude of issues. That’s why, with the support of Handsome1 and based on Thales’ key expertise in developing secure and convenient payment solutions, we decided to tackle concerns faced by blind and visually impaired people. Since then, the solution has appeared useful for other disabilities. We are thrilled to see our innovations contribute to building more sustainable and responsible payment solutions.” said Bertrand Knopf, Vice President of Banking and Payment Services at Thales.

¹ Handsome is a French Fintech specialising in inclusive solutions for people with disabilities.