Mastercard launches Touch Card in Australia

The new design comes to address a new trend in designing cards, as now more and more cards feature a flat design that includes no embossed names or numbers and that, thus, are difficult to identify and use correctly by people who are blind or who have low vision. Because of the new offering, this segment of Australia’s population will now be able to identify their cards as well as correctly position them when using them at an ATM or when making a payment.

To make sure that all their cards are easy to distinguish, there are variations in the design for each of them. More precisely, credit cards have a squarish notch, debit cards have a rounded notch, and prepaid cards have a triangular notch. The design was created in partnership with IDEMIA, an identity tech company.

Before its release, Mastercard’s Touch Card has been vetted and approved by the VISIONS/Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired in the US, as well as by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) in the UK.

The press release highlights the importance of how small, yet simple changes can positively impact those who are visually impaired or blind. The new release is part of Mastercard’s strategy to provide inclusive solutions. The design for the Touch Card will be made available for all banks and card issuers in Australia.

Measures that facilitate the financial inclusion of the visually impaired have previously garnered attention this year. 

For instance, Portugal-based payments company SIBS announced, in January 2023, that it launched a card certified by ACAPO that similarly aimed to improve financial integration for the visually impaired. 

The offering designed using SIBS’s proprietary technology features bank and non-bank cards with Braille identification that enable individuals, both within Portugal and internationally, who are blind or have low vision to differentiate between different types of cards based on their intended purpose.