Case Study - Dept of Social Welfare in Ireland

We spoke with Peter, a Financial Controller in the Department of Social Welfare, Ireland.

The Problem

Peter is a financial controller in the Department of Social Welfare. Peter has vision loss, thus, he required specialised cash-handling equipment to assist him in his work. He needed a way to process cash at a much quicker and more accurate rate.

"As a financial controller with vision loss, I needed a product that could make counting cash less tedious and much faster."

What We Knew

Peter uses a Job Access with Speech (JAWS) screen reader that enables him to navigate his computer applications via a speech and Braille output. Although Peter is capable of differentiating between the different euro banknotes, counting cash was proving long and tedious for him when it came to authenticating, counting and sorting money. Not only did we have to find the ideal cash counting machine for Peter, but also find a way of linking it up to his screen reader.

"They are visionaries, they had an idea of the overall picture when we were trying to develop my system. They were able to offer ideas and demonstrations."

The Solution

We recommended the Julong JL 206V Advance Value Counting machine. This machine is one of the smallest desktop note sorters available which can sit right next to Peter's computer. With the JL 206V so close, Peter can now authenticate, count, mix-count, face & orientate banknotes from his seat. To link the Julong up to the JAWS screen reader on his desktop, we developed an in-house piece of software for the Julong JL 206V. The application we developed allows the Department of Social Welfares machine to connect with the JAWS screen reader and communicate with Peter, allowing him to process cash in half the time.

"If you're looking for new equipment they're prepared to get a model in to test it. If you want to do it differently they're prepared to go back and change it, for us, it was the software."