Accessibility and Banking - what are they doing with our money?

Thursday May 18th was Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). Start by Jennison Asuncion and Joe Devon, the event has gone from strength to strength evey year. The purpose of GAAD is to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital access and inclusion. You can find out more about GAAD and the related GAAD Foundation.

InterAccess were delighted to be asked by our friends in Sight and Sound, to join with members of the British Assistive Technology Association (BATA) for a lunch and learn seminar on the subject of accessibility in the world of financial services.

Some of the things we talked about were: with so many high street banks closing their doors, and banks that remain encouraging us to access their services digitally, where does this leave people with disabilities?

How can people with disabilities lobby for greater access and have their voices heard, to improve access to chip and pin terminals, for example, and, how are the big players doing when it comes to the accessibility of their online banking services?

Josh was joined by Richard Holmes, Stakeholder Engagement Manager with RNIB. Richard is also Chair of the VI Group within BATA (British Assistive Technology Association). Richard has 25 years experience in the charity sector, where he has held a variety of policy, campaigns and public affairs roles.

There was a lively discussion and debate that covered everything from ‘I give them all my money and all they give me is a plastic card’ to ‘People with disabilities have advocacy fatigue but are stilll responsible for telling it like it is when they cannot fully use online services’. The role of newcomer banks like N26, Revolut was also discussed in the context of ‘can they do better that the older established banks?‘. The jury is still out.

The session was moderated by Stuart Lawler, Head of Digital Content/Business Development Manager from Sight and Sound and had over 50 attendees from Ireland and the UK.