Web accessibility is critical for the finance and banking sector to adopt. Banks worldwide are one of the first to embrace web accessibility due strict to regulations. According to a study from the World Bank, it’s estimated that 2 billion people don’t have access to formal financial services. Hence, banks are keen and rightly so to make banking more accessible for people with disabilities around the world. Access to banks, ATMs, online payment gateways, insurance, loans, and other banking services are equally essential to everyone, more so for people with disabilities.
Even if we look at some cases like Bank of America California and Florida Agreement (2000), Best Buy POS Settlement Agreement (2010) or E*Trade Settlement Agreement Amendment (2018) on Lainey Feingold’s website, it is evident that everyone in finance and banking sector will have to adopt web accessibility. It is time for fintech to embrace innovation and accessibility in their product development right from the product inception.
Few questions to ask to ensure Fintech products are thinking accessibility:
- Does your potential customer include people with some disability? With a 2 Billion population with some form of disability (15% of the world population!), this is a customer base that you definitely should not ignore!
- Have you thought of people with challenges with seeing, hearing, thinking, reach & dexterity & mobility? Learn more about Inclusive Design. Does your product design consider the principles of inclusivity?
- Have you considered people with disabilities as an integral part of user testing?
It is time for the finance and banking industry to understand the customer potential and build accessibility as a differentiator in your products.
As software designers and developers, our mission is to build products that can be used by as many people as possible. One of our expertise, therefore, is to develop products with accessibility in mind.
But that is easier said than done. ONE BCG — along with the majority of product development firms — is working ways to operationalizing accessibility into every product that gets built.
Reach out to us via Email, or Book an appointment. We can work with your teams to build an inclusive fintech product.
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