Coinciding with National AccessAbility Week, Mastercard launched its Touch Card feature in Canada, a tactile notch feature designed to empower the sight loss community. Inclusive by design, Touch Card by Mastercard is an accessible system of payment cards that has unique notches that allow the sight loss community to identify their credit, debit and prepaid cards with just a touch.
Touch Card features an innovative system of notches – rounded for debit, squared for credit and triangular for prepaid – so cardholders can easily identify their cards with just a touch. This helps them quickly identify and correctly orient their cards during a transaction, offering greater security and independence.
With an estimated 1.5 million Canadians identifying as having a sight loss (CNIB), the new Touch Card by Mastercard is designed to address a longstanding challenge faced by Canadians with sight loss when engaging in everyday financial activities.
Marking the launch of the Touch Card feature in Canada, Mastercard worked with Mara Lauren Hutchinson, advocate for the blind, to highlight her authentic story of living with sight loss in a campaign video. The video captures how the Touch Card feature can have a positive impact on her day-to-day financial activities.
CIBC is the first Canadian issuing partner to make the Touch Card feature available to Canadians as of May 1st, 2025, through a credit card with a unique squared notch – the CIBC Adapta™ Mastercard®.