ATLAS Vending has collaborated with the Malaysian Association for the Blind (MAB) to roll out its pilot programme for vending machines specially equipped with additional assistive features to enable accessibility for visually-impaired customers.
This first of its kind rollout in Malaysia features vending machines certified by the Malaysia Book of Records as the first braille-enabled vending machines in Malaysia.
The effort is in line with Atlas Vending's aim to reduce barriers facing the visually-impaired community, such as barriers that impede their access to vending machines serving refreshments in public spaces.
The 11 vending machines rolled out in this pilot project are located around LRT stations including around the Brickfields area in Kuala Lumpur.
For ease of access, the machines have been equipped with Braille plates as well as indicator lights and motion-sensor triggered audio instructions.
In Malaysia, the National Eye Survey that was conducted by the Ministry of Health found that the prevalence of low vision among the general population in Malaysia was 2.44 per cent while the prevalence of blindness was 0.29 per cent of the population, which means that as many as 800,000 Malaysians could be partially sighted while close to 95,000 are blind.
For the partially sighted, they may be able to perceive colour and light, and even movement and form, thus the indicator lights on the machines are a helpful assistive tool, in addition to the braille plates and audio instructions for all visually-impaired users.
The vending machines will carry some of Malaysia's favourite bottled and canned drinks and will have audio-guided instructions for purchasing drinks, with cash and cashless payment options included.
As part of the collaboration Atlas Vending is also making a RM10,000 donation to the MAB Covid-19 Campaign Fund that aims to help the blind community, especially those who have lost their incomes due to the pandemic following the implementation of the Movement Control Order.