McDonald's Korea adopts voice guidance service for kiosks

SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Yonhap) -- McDonald's Korea said Friday it has updated its self-service kiosk with a voice guidance service at some of its Seoul stores for the first time in Asia as part of its efforts to improve accessibility and convenience for visually impaired customers.

The voice guidance software and touch pads were installed on kiosks first at 15 McDonald's stores near social welfare agencies for the visually disabled and schools for the blind, according to the Korean unit of the U.S. fast food chain.

Customers with vision impairments can plug in their personal earphones to the kiosks and hear voice prompts over the background noise.

The introduction of the service for low vision customers in South Korea is McDonald's second after the United States and the first in Asia.

It also marks the first time for a fast food restaurant in South Korea to make such a move.

McDonald's Korea said it will expand the service to all stores in Korea.

"We have deeply empathized with the need to install voice guidance services at kiosks for visually impaired customers," a company official said, noting the company has researched and developed the service for a long time.

nyway@yna.co.kr
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