Accessibility, Member Exclusive

The Accessibility Playbook: How to make FIs accessible inside and out

  • There are more than 42.5 million differently-abled people in America, and firms need to think about how their products, work environments, digital and physical footprints need to evolve to serve this segment better. 
  • Dive into what strategies some of the biggest FIs are using to make their work environments, their customer touchpoints, and products more accessible.
close

Email a Friend

The Accessibility Playbook: How to make FIs accessible inside and out

Who is a bank really for? Most of us would like this answer to be: everyone. But sometimes accessibility to banks as employers and as banking providers gets skewed away from those who are differently abled.

This is thankfully changing, as many Wall Street and community banks are realigning their policies and taking mindful action to build a more inclusive customer-facing and employee-facing institution.

Here is how some of the biggest firms are building for accessibility:

Build for differently-abled customers

1. Shift accessibility left: Making a digital product or service accessible after it’s already been developed is harder than building it accessible from the start. Capital One’s journey to one of the most accessible banking apps is one that started from this realization. Since there is overlap between SEO and accessibility requirements, the firm evolved its SEO team into its accessibility team. Raising awareness internally about how shifting accessibility left in the development process can introduce efficiencies is also important. In Capital One’s case, a significant part of the firm’s Senior Director of Digital Accessibility Mark Penicook’s time and effort goes into ensuring that teams across the bank understand the work they are doing, and how it impacts customers’ and the employees’ workflow.

2. Leverage tech and build subject matter expertise: Last year, Chase won an unsolicited James R. Olsen Distinguished Service Accessibility Award by the American Council of the Blind. The bank has been able to realize such results on the accessibility of its app because it has dedicated subject matter experts that guide the development process as well as team-based trainers that work with testers, designers and developers. The bank’s design process also enables designers to markup their work with the accessibility functionalities and features that need to be worked in by developers – Chase calls this tech “green lines” according to James Green, Head of Digital Accessibility at Chase. This markup software allows two separate teams to stay on the same page when building a product  and ensures that developers don’t unknowingly make any changes to things like alternative text and other features that would compromise the overall accessibility of the product.

3. Automate and work with accessibility software providers: A time-consuming chunk of the accessible software development cycle is testing. For example, before Capital One started automating its accessibility testing processes, the firm would spend 3 to 4 weeks testing out its digital footprint for issues, said Penicook. To make this process more efficient the firm’s venture capital arm invested in accessibility software provider Evinced, and has been able to bring its testing time down to a few hours. Other major banks and FIs also leverage the expertise of accessibility providers to build more accessible products and test for issues. For example, US Bank and PNC both work with Deque Systems, and the money transfer company Payoneer works with UserWay.

_____________________________________________________________________ subscription wall for TS Pro

0 comments on “The Accessibility Playbook: How to make FIs accessible inside and out”

Embedded Finance, Member Exclusive

KeyBank deepens its collaboration with Qolo, modeling how banks can build deeper fintech partnerships

  • The KeyBank-Qolo alliance reflects an evolution in how banks and fintechs can co-create value through deeper integration.
  • We break down their partnership mechanics and what makes it effective.
Sara Khairi | July 03, 2025
10-Q, Member Exclusive

With its historic asset cap lifted, what exactly does Wells Fargo plan to do with its regained freedom?

  • In early June 2025, Wells Fargo finally saw the infamous asset cap lifted.
  • What did it take for Wells to reach this turning point? And how does it plan to make the most of its second chance?
Sara Khairi | June 30, 2025
10-Q, Member Exclusive

Wise goes West: Why the London fintech star is headed for a US stock exchange, and what it signals about global capital markets

  • Wise announced it plans to shift its primary stock listing to a US stock exchange, a move both strategic and symbolic that underscores tectonic shifts in the global listings landscape.
  • Wise’s decision is less about location and more about evolution. And London, for now, remains a proud hometown - but a second choice.
Sara Khairi | June 16, 2025
Artificial Intelligence, Member Exclusive

Agentic AI is knocking. Here’s how banks are answering the door

  • A growing number of institutions are assessing how to deploy Agentic AI systems securely within their established governance structures, as they anticipate a shift toward greater automation in financial services.
  • Our analysis focuses on financial institutions that have implemented or are planning to implement Agentic AI, as well as the present state of their integration initiatives.
Sara Khairi | June 12, 2025
10-Q, Member Exclusive

A tale of two innovations: Square’s AI edge for SMBs and Morgan Stanley’s code makeover

  • We track two new AI developments this week from well-known public companies: Square and Morgan Stanley.
  • We analyze how Square’s Conversational AI signals a broader transformation in small business tech, and shed light on Morgan Stanley’s work addressing a critical, yet often ignored, AI issue.
Sara Khairi | June 09, 2025
More Articles