7:00pm Wednesday 28th February 2007
By Andy Davey
A GROUP of disappointed wheelchair users from Poole claim they can only conveniently use one cash machine in the town centre.
As part of a national survey, five disabled people from The Grange, a Leonard Cheshire residential home in Parkstone, tested 25 holes in the wall.
They found most cash machines were too high to see the screen properly and in many cases they struggled to manoeuvre their wheelchairs close enough to use the keyboard.
The only machine to prove accessible was one of the three at Lloyds in Poole High Street.
The Grange's volunteer co-ordinator Sharon Powell explained that in most cases residents have to go inside the bank and withdraw money from a cashier instead.
Grange resident Laura Baylie, 33, said: "Most of the cash machines in my town are difficult to use.
"However staff in the banks and shops we visited were very interested to hear how they could improve their services for disabled people."
High Street banks in Poole claim they are working very hard to make their services as accessible to wheelchair users as possible.
A spokesman from Lloyds TSB said: "We try very hard to make our services available to everyone.
"Sometimes it is very hard to operate within certain constraints, for example if the branch is a listed building it is difficult to make adjustments.
"Having said that we do all we can to comply with the Disability Discriminations Act."
The group's findings were part of a national survey organised by Leonard Cheshire, which provides support for disabled people.
Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed across the country found that the cash machines they used were inaccessible, despite disabled people in the UK having a combined spending power reaching well into the billions of pounds.
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