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.

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 sales. 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.

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Thales addresses inclusivity with its ‘Voice Payment Card’; a payment innovation that brings autonomy and convenience to visually impaired people. (Photo: Thales)

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, the 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, it appeared that the solution has proven to be useful for other disabilities. All in all we are thrilled to see our innovations contribute to building more sustainable and responsible payment solutions.” said Bertrand Knopf, Vice President Banking and Payment Services at Thales.

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

About Thales

Thales (Euronext Paris: HO) is a global leader in advanced technologies, investing in digital and “deep tech” innovations – connectivity, big data, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and quantum technologies – to build a confident future crucial for the development of our societies. The Group provides its customers – businesses, organizations and governments – in the defense, aeronautics, space, transport, and digital identity and security domains with solutions, services and products that help them fulfil their critical role, consideration for the individual being the driving force behind all decisions.

Thales has 81,000 employees in 68 countries. In 2021, the Group generated sales of €16.2 billion.

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