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A blind Dunedin resident says she has had to resort to telling shop workers her card pin number because touchscreen Eftpos machines are "unusable".
Unlike a typical Eftpos machine with raised keys, the Verifone machines have flat touch screens with a voice prompt feature for accessibility.
Verifone said it was working on improvements, but an advocate for blind people wanted such machines off the counters.
Dunedin resident Julie Woods has been confronted with more and more Verifone Eftpos machines in recent months.
They work fine for contactless payments, but her business Eftpos card does not have that option.
"My heart does sink when I go to pay and I do realise by touching it that it is a Verifone terminal and I know that I'm going to have to go through this palaver of not being able to independently put in my information," Woods said.
Verifone said its machines had an accessibility feature called 'navigator' that turned the non-tactile screen into a universal keypad with audio confirmation.
"Prior to launch and since, we have consistently collaborated with vision-impaired advocacy groups to test and enhance the solution and are regularly reminding our merchants of the importance of the functionality in supporting vision-impaired consumers," the spokesperson said.
Woods said she did not know how to use it and neither did the staff she had met, and she had not been offered training proactively.
Instead, she contacted the company about two months ago asking for help and they offered to send staff to Dunedin to train her.
But her first session was postponed until mid-December, and without the training, she could not use them and neither could others who did not have PayWave, she said.
She has resorted to handing over her pin number to store workers or others so she can buy what she needs.
"This whole process has been humiliating. It's embarrassing. It makes me as a blind person look stupid whereas the reality is that the terminal is stupid," Woods said.
"But it doesn't always feel like that when you go into a shop and it feels like just another barrier that blind people have to face."
The machine wouldn't be considered usable for sighted people if they had to go through the same training she did, Woods said.
"Imagine if every person who was going to use the Verifone terminal had to receive training from one of their staff.
"Then I don't think this system would be rolled out. It would be deemed unusable."
Woods wanted the new government to crack down on inaccessible terminals and ensure there were enforceable standards.
Access Matters Aotearoa lead campaigner Juliana Carvalho first started hearing about problems with the machines earlier this year.
"The actual feature that should be accessible called 'navigator' is actually not user friendly and has been proven to not be easy to use, especially in the settings where you might have a line behind you and you're trying to figure out how to use the feature."
People had reported feeling humiliated, anxious and self-conscious, Carvalho said.
"They might have to share their pin with a stranger sometimes to be able to complete a purchase or otherwise they need to share a pin with whoever is with them.
"But then they don't know who's around in the environment. Is someone else going to listen to what their pin is? So it's a security issue as well."
She encouraged anyone impacted to contact Verifone or complain to the Human Rights Commission.
Verifone said the move to touchscreen technology was a consistent trend across industries as were contactless payments and increased transaction limits.
"Which means that consumers can pay with a tap of their card or increasingly their phone for most payment transactions at the point-of-sale, without the need to enter a pin," the spokesperson said.
Verifone has been speaking with Payments NZ about setting up accessibility standards for touchscreen payment terminals.
"Verifone is committed to continue engaging and collaborating with the industry, regulators, and the blind and low-vision community to ensure ongoing accessibility and to support both merchants and consumers so all users enjoy a seamless payment experience on Verifone solutions."