The Guyana Council of Organisations for Persons with Disabilities (GCOPD) is currently exploring opportunities for persons who are living with disabilities to have better access to services offered by commercial banks.
This was revealed by GCOPD Programme Coordinator, Ganesh Singh during a telephone interview with this publication on Wednesday.
Singh and a team had recently met with the Bank of Guyana’s Deputy Governor, Mr. Leslie Glen where they discussed major issues affecting persons with disabilities, and what measures can be put in place to resolve those problems.
Singh highlighted that some commercial banks in Guyana do not allow persons who are visually-impaired to have a bank account, unless it is a joint one.
“Some commercial banks do not allow blind persons to open a bank account by themselves…they have to open a joint account. Even if they allow you to open an account, some commercial banks…do not give you an ATM card, they refuse to give you an ATM card,” the advocate lamented.
He also highlighted that in Guyana, the ATMs are not accessible for persons with disabilities whereas in some countries, there are systems in place for visually-impaired persons to listen to audio which will instruct them on how to access the ATM services.
“We also discussed the fact that the ATMs are not accessible…in some countries, you can plug in your headphones and you can listen to the audio…so a blind person can be able to conduct their ATM transaction independently,” Singh shared.
Moreover, during the meeting with the Central Bank, Singh said suggestions were made for specific markings to be done on each of the notes so persons can identify the different bills by touching them.
“We also discussed making our notes, our five thousand, two thousand, thousand dollars and so on, putting a tactile marking on them, so that a blind person, when they touch it, they can know what denomination it is,” Singh explained.
Overall, the GCOPD representative expressed that the meeting was very productive and he is hoping to make some progress in the not too distant future on these issues.
According to Singh, the organisation hopes to meet with commercial banks to further discussions on these matters.
