Disability Advocates Question Accessibility of New Metro SmarTrip Dispensers

See this article by that title in the Washington Post.  It begins:

Advocates for people with disabilities say Metro’s plans to make SmarTrip cards more accessible to riders by installing new vending machines at every rail station fall short in one crucial area: The new machines are not expected to be immediately accessible to all people with limited vision. 

The machines, which are scheduled to make their debut Sept. 1, have no audio feature. Riders who are blind or have impaired vision or those with cognitive impairments may find them difficult, if not impossible, to use, disability advocates said. 

“In this day and time I can’t imagine how. . . the Metro system [is] purchasing things and then . . . installing them and paying for them and they are not accessible to everyone,” said Denise Rush, who is blind and serves on Metro’s Accessibility Advisory Committee (AAC). “It is not acceptable. It is ludicrous.”