Westpac is launching a new set of card designs to make payments more accessible to customers who are blind or visually impaired.

Credit, debit and prepaid cards will incorporate new accessibility features, including different notches along the short edge to allow customers to distinguish their payment cards from each other with a single touch. .

Thanks to Mastercard’s Touch Card feature, the notches – squares for credit cards, circles for debit cards and triangles for prepaid cards – help customers identify the card and orient it correctly when using it, such as such as to make payments or to use an ATM.

The cards will also include a braille marker, providing another tactile feature to help blind or visually impaired customers distinguish between credit, debit and prepaid cards.

“The features of the new cards are a simple but innovative step forward that will make a big difference in the day-to-day lives of many blind or low vision Australians.

“Our strategy is to continue to develop products and services that are accessible to all customers. This builds on a range of initiatives we already have in place such as accessibility mode on all our EFTPOS Now terminals, online applications that meet accessibility requirements and accessible digital card functionality when customers use voice-over and talk back.”

Westpac chief brand and marketing officer, Annabel Fribence.