Making banking channels more accessible

The trained dog at the ATM story got me thinking about how well banks are catering to disabled communities with their banking channels -- whether branch, ATM or website.

I recall that some banks have given thought to ATM accessibility in the past by having at least one machine in a row of several positioned much lower than the rest so short people, or those in wheelchairs, can use it. But this is quite rare. Training dogs will obviously increase the number of usable ATMs for those disabled people lucky enough to have such a skilful canine companion.

But what about online banking accessibility?

In December, UK-based web accessibility agency Nomensa released a report based on research commissioned by the United Nations.

Using a combination of manual and automated testing against the globally recognised benchmark for web accessibility: The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 1.0 (WCAG 1.0)., Nomensa examined the leading website in five different sectors in 20 countries. This included its Head of State and leading airline, bank, newspaper and retailer. In all, the survey tested 100 websites.

Only the websites of the German Chancellor, the Spanish Government and the British Prime Minister met WCAG Level A, the minimum recognised level. No site met Level AA or higher.

So just 3% of sites surveyed met the minimum criteria, and the leading banks in 20 countries all failed.

A similar survey in Spain last year ranked the banking sector lowest of all for accessiblity and user satisfaction.

A quick scan of the Accessibility pages of several leading banks shows some that just provide advice on browser configuration, and others claim to be working towards WCAG compliance.

But it seems there's still a lot of work to do.