Kathy Herziger-Snider, vice president of product development for CO-OP Financial Services, credited the push from the major card brands Visa and MasterCard to update ATMs to higher security encryption for also helping CUs meet the new ADA rules. "Most of the machines that were compliant with [the new encryption technology] were also compliant with the ADA," she said. This was the case particularly when it came to the keyboards that had to meet new encryption standards. The manufacturers made sure the new keyboards largely complied with ADA requirements.

She also noted that there were elements in the new regulation that would help lighten the burden. Under the new rules, if a credit union has more than one ATM in a given location, like a branch, it does not have to make sure all of the ATMs in that location are ADA compliant. It's acceptable if only one is, Herziger-Snider explained.

In addition, many ATMs that have been built in the last few years have been built more like computers, she explained. That means a credit union doesn't have to buy a single ATM with all of the attachments. Instead it could buy different components, such as a telephone handset or audio jack  as needed and that lets CUs position themselves to upgrade to ADA compliant machines less expensively and easily.

But Josh Ettesvold, president of Express Teller Services, a Phoenix-based organization that helps both CUs and independent firms manage ATMs, said that significant numbers of credit unions still have old, noncompliant ATMs and have not yet started the process of changing the height of some machines to make them compliant. This could be changing the floor height under the machine as well as the height of any framing around the machine, he said, making the project more costly. "In many cases, you are talking real construction," he said.

Both Ettesvold and Herziger-Snider worried a bit about the possibility that credit unions could find themselves facing litigation from ADA-related complaints filed by law firms who were seeking an easy dollar, much in the way that some CUs have been sued over alleged discrepancies in their ATM disclosures.

Herziger-Snider urged that any CUs that may not complete making the transition to full compliance with the ADA in time at least have plans on file to show they are on the way to having it done in the near future. And she agreed with Ettesvold's observation that credit unions should start including ADA compliance checks in their regular ATM maintenance. Including these checks can mean making sure that someone checks that the ATM's Braille or other large text signs were still there, making sure that the audio jack works and that it conveys the needed information.

"I hate to say it, but it's a little bit like we are having to play defense," she said, but added that she believed credit union overall were better positioned for the ADA regulations than were other financial institutions.