Goldstein, Demchak, Baller, Borgen & Dardarian, along with solo practitioner Lainey Feingold, represent the California Council for the Blind, the American Council of the Blind, and the American Foundation for the Blind in negotiations with many of the nation’s largest retail chains to ensure that their cash register point of sale machines have tactile keypads so customers who are visually impaired or otherwise have difficulty reading information on a touchscreen may privately and independently enter their PINs, telephone numbers, and other confidential information, as do sighted customers.  The firm has negotiated separate agreements with Wal-Mart Stores, Safeway Stores (which operates stores across the country under the banners Safeway, Vons, Pavilions, Randall's, Tom Thumb, Genuardi's, Dominick's, Pak'n Save Foods and Carr's stores), RadioShack, Rite Aid, Dollar General, Staples, 7-Eleven and Trader Joe's, and is in continuing negotiations with several other national retail chains to ensure that they install equipment to protect the privacy and security of their customers with visual impairments.  The tactile point of sale machines obtained by these settlements have tactile keys arranged like a standard telephone keypad, with an extra row of function keys that have raised symbols discernable by touch.

Pursuant to our agreements, Wal-Mart has installed tactile point of sale machines at several aisles in all of its stores in the United States and Puerto Rico.  Similarly, every Safeway store in the United States has already been equipped with several of the devices, and every RadioShack store and Trader Joe's store in the United States has a tactile point of sale machine.  Every 7-Eleven store in California has a tactile device, and they will be installed at all cash registers throughout the country by no later than June 30, 2009.

The RadioShack, Rite Aid and Staples agreements also commit those companies to make their consumer websites accessible to persons with visual impairments.  GDBBD continues to encourage other retailers to install tactile point of sale machines and bring their consumer websites into compliance with the World Wide Web Consortium's web accessibility guidelines.