A bank in Florida refused to cash a check for an armless man because
he could not provide a thumbprint.

"They looked at my prosthetic hands and the teller said, 'Well,
obviously you can't give us a thumbprint,' " Steve Valdez told CNN.

But he said the Bank of America branch in downtown Tampa, Florida,
still insisted on a thumbprint identification for him to cash a cheque
drawn on his wife's account at the bank, even though he showed them
two photo IDs.

In the incident last week, a bank supervisor told Mr Valdez he could
only cash the cheque without a thumbprint if he brought his wife in
with him or he opened an account with the bank.

"I told them I neither wanted an account with them and couldn't bring
my wife in because she was nowhere close by," Mr Valdez told CNN.

Bank of America said in a statement cited by CNN: "While the
thumbprint is a requirement for those who don't have accounts, the
bank should have made accommodations."

Mr Valdez said his treatment by the bank violated the US Americans
with Disability Act requiring institutions to provide reasonable
accommodation to disabled persons.