Global demand for accessibility continues to grow, due in part to the strengthening voice worldwide of more than one billion people with disabilities & important frameworks, such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. From a private sector standpoint, the Convention represents a unique opportunity to ensure equal access to information while achieving global harmonization of standards and economies of scale. Understanding that technology is the great equalizer for underserved populations & having a clear roadmap towards inclusive information & communications technologies (ICT), rather than simple compliance strategies, will benefit everyone in every industry. Specifically, the financial services sector is faced with the need to transform operations while providing truly exceptional customer experiences. Disruptive trends - such as the influx of mobile devices & global regulations- are driving demand for more human-centric technology, & creating an opportunity for innovation that are proving to be differentiators for the institutions embracing them. Consumer demand to be in control of interactions & information is forcing those in financial services to reconsider what’s important to stay competitive. By offering an online experience through any device personalized to individual needs, preferences & abilities, organizations can ensure they are reaching the broadest base of the population, especially the “unbanked” and “underbanked,” to enhance interactions & improve sales opportunities. Thus, access to & inclusion in financial services is crucial to poverty reduction & participation in economic prosperity & growth & development. Signing banks initially aims to point out the need of full financial inclusion to people with disabilities & to be more specific to d/Deaf bank customers. Persons with disabilities & d/Deafness have been amongst those traditionally marginalized from the financial services sector through a mix of inaccessibility, presumptions of limited need & capacity to manage finances, & mindsets that did not view them as a profitable consumer base. Signing banks emphasizes to the fact that this paradigm is now rapidly changing with growing evidence of their demand and need for access to services as well as the increasing income base of persons with disabilities around the world. Persons with disabilities and diverse abilities are demanding better and easier access to the entire range of financial services. Access to and inclusion in financial services is important to persons across the economic spectrum. And for persons with disabilities who live under the poverty line, it is essential that they are involved in financial inclusion initiatives & programs that will empower them and enable them to become financially independent. In order to reach these aforementioned outputs, Signing banks project has 3 main target groups: 1) the financial and banking world represented by RCCI, ESQUARED and by EOLAS, 2) d/Deaf people represented by Ergon and INNETICA; 3) adult educators with d/DEAF PEOPLE (30 per country). By creating a holistic strategy for embedding accessible technology across the entire enterprise from processes to product development to people – organizations can reinvigorate individual channels and harmonize them across the bank. Thus, Signing banks aims to provide a clear picture of the global forces at work that are transforming how employee- and client-facing applications, products and services are delivered to reach the broadest set of customers. The project also serves as a useful benchmarking source for governments and advocates based on its review of existing solutions already implemented around the world. The strategic objective of the project is to promote full financial inclusion to people with disabilities in particular to d/Deaf people, including traditional and alternative banking services, online payment services, financial transactions, and mobile banking. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: 1) CREATE A REPOSITORY OF BEST CASES 2) CREATE CLEAR GUIDELINES FOR BANKING INSTITUTIONS on how implement accessibility measures in their communication and products. 3) CREATE A TRAINING for d/DEAF adults to improve their financial education and ability to communicate with financial institutions. TARGET: d/DEAF PEOPLE BANKING INSTITUTIONS educators engaged with d/DEAF PEOPLE The project will bring a clear EU added value since financial inclusion is a challenge faced by most EU countries. For achieving the project results, the international partnership established is essential because it brings complementary expertise for designing a programme with a high replication potential in other countries. Hence, the transnational collaboration established is essential because it enables partners to share good practices & combine knowledge towards the development of a replicable model for integrating d/Deaf people to European bankin
Global demand for accessibility for all is a growing movement, strengthened by important frameworks, such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. As well as focusing on interpersonal communication the project recognized that digital technology has immense potential in achieving inclusive services that will benefit everyone in every industry. The project therefore aimed to build the business case for inclusion and facilitate the commercial service providers with resources to enable them to adapt their provision. The specific objectives for Signing Banks were to: • Create a repository of best practice amongst the banking sector, to show who was already leading the way. • Create usable guidance for banking institutions as to how to review their provision and implement improvements in their communication, services and products. This included use of digital technology. • Provide support for d/Deaf customers to navigate financial provision and communicate with financial Institutions. The overall objective was to be able to identify tangible results in the improvement of services by the banks and financial instutions engaged and to showcase to d/Deaf customers what accessible service could like.
Signing Banks sought to support better financial inclusion for the d/Deaf community in the project partner countries. Partners wanted to enhance d/Deaf individuals to integrated into the financial and banking world as customers. This was based on a recognition that on many occasions they fail to access the full range of services provided by banks and other financial institutions because of hearing impairment affecting understanding and communication. The project sought to be able to influence improved access to traditional and alternative banking services for d/Deaf customers, including online payment services, in-person financial transactions and mobile banking. The accessibility issue was originally identified by the Italian partner, Ergon, an organisation partly staffed by members of the d/Deaf community and has been endorsed by the needs analysis research undertaken within the project.Partners have established relationships with banks to improve their awareness of the issues and produced resources to enable those improvements. Signing Banks has been an ambitious project and partners have recognised that engaging with large corporate institutions like banks is by no means easy but there has been some demonstrable success.