AIB has adopted a customer-centric approach to accessibility by engaging external advocacy groups and consultancies to inform the design of solutions to meet customers’ needs.
The bank’s partnership with disability-led accessibility and inclusion consultancy Tilting the Lens spanned user experience (UX), web and app design, marketing and staff training.
“Each aspect of this strategy was led by the insights and solutions shared by disabled customers, and co-creating solutions with them was central in our work and aim to implement the requirements of the European Accessibility Act,” explains AIB’s managing director Retail Banking Geraldine Casey.
Tilting the Lens designed and led robust qualitative and quantitative research to provide critical insights to AIB on priority items for disabled people. This ensured that the lived experience of disabled customers informed the bank’s implementation of the European Accessibility Act requirement to deliver improvements across products and services.
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A significant number of enhancements to the bank’s products and services have been made based on these insights, and as part of its ongoing commitment to ensuring accessibility, further updates will be implemented in the weeks and months ahead.
AIB also worked with Tilting the Lens to create new guidelines for designing accessible systems and infrastructure for its digital channels. This resulted in enhancements to websites, the mobile app and online services. These enhancements are aimed at meeting customer access needs and significantly improving the experience for those using assistive technologies such as screen readers, keyboard navigation and so on to access information about products and services when engaging with AIB’s digital platforms.
“These improvements, particularly to our digital services, will continue to be rolled out as we work to improve access for all our customers,” says Casey. “A key focus is our comprehensive training, which has been developed with the support of Tilting the Lens. This includes training for our senior leadership team as well as our customer-facing and product design colleagues that will be delivered by Tilting the Lens.”
The training focuses on embedding accessibility and how it aligns with customer centric growth, innovation and compliance as a strategic priority. There will also be practical guidance on implementing accessibility standards and behaviours in decision making regarding customer access and engagement with digital and physical banking products and services. Staff will also be supported to recognise potential accessibility challenges in everyday banking experiences.
“Tilting the Lens has been working at pace over the past 18 months with a number of companies to support their work to implement the European Accessibility Act, but we are particularly proud of the breadth and depth of our partnerships across the entire team at AIB, and their investment of time and resources in learning from and working with the disabled community in their efforts,” says Tilting the Lens chief executive and founder Sinéad Burke.
“The impact of the work spread across the organisation, which saw an openness and willingness in each department we worked with, made this an organic, successful, and trusted partnership from the top of the organisation down,” she adds. “Disabled people have a right to financial literacy and independence, and this work brings us measurably closer on that journey.”
AIB has also partnered with Ireland’s autism charity, AsIAm, to make all of its 170 branches around Ireland as user-friendly as possible for autistic people. Every AIB branch has received Autism Friendly Accreditation from AsIAm to ensure they are as accessible and inclusive as possible for Autistic people. This makes AIB the first Irish bank to receive the accreditation for all its branches.
The branch sensory environment has been enhanced to include changes in lighting to make the public areas of our buildings warmer and more accessible. Dedicated quiet spaces and sensory kits are also available at each location.
“In addition, we are providing sensory maps on our website showing the layout of each of our branches to help customers plan their visit,” says Casey. “We are also delighted to partner further with AsIAm in providing specialised customer support training in Autism Understanding and Acceptance to colleagues across the branch network.”
AIB has also upgraded all of its ATMs to provide increased functionality for visually impaired people. All ATMs and cash and cheque lodgement units now offer voice guidance support for cash withdrawals, balance queries, mini statements and Pin services. All customers need to do is insert their headphones into the device to avail of this service.
“AIB has the largest branch network in Ireland and with 3.35 million customers, we want to ensure our products and services [are] as accessible as possible to all our customers,” Casey concludes. “This is a journey that we are committed to getting right. With the support of Tilting the Lens, we are working hard to ensure we are constantly improving our accessibility and the insights, strategy and training Sinéad and her team have provided are invaluable. AIB plays an important role in communities around Ireland, and our people are committed to ensuring that they are as inclusive and welcoming as possible for all.”
