I was invited to represent Intuit at a meeting in Paris to discuss how International financial institutions could provide accessible experiences for their customers and employees. The event was organized by G3ICT and built upon the work done for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The following are notes I’ve extracted from the presentations listed below. There’s a wealth of information contained within these presentations and each is worth opening and studying.
Speakers and links
- Matt Ater, Vice President, Services, Freedom Scientific • Presentation and Presentation
- Dominique Burger, President, BrailleNet, European eAccessibility Forum
- Alireza Darvishy, Head, Accessibility Center, Crédit Suisse • Presentation
- Ted Drake, Accessibility Principal Engineer, Intuit • Presentation
- Gita Esmieu, Director, Financial Services Accessibility Program, G3ict
- Serge Leblal, Editorial Director, CIO and Le Monde Informatique
- Axel Leblois, President and Executive Director, G3ict • Presentation
- Dr. Monique Mai, Accessibility Group Department, Director “Communication, Remote Sales & Public Affairs,” Orange Group • Presentation
- Sara Mansell, Design Lead, IBM • Presentation
- Jean-Michel Mépuis, Director, Sustainable Development and CSR, Société Générale
- Nicola Palmarini, Global Digital Creative & Technology Advocate, IBM Accessibility / IBM Research • Presentation
- Inmaculada Placencia-Porrero, Deputy Head of Unit for Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Directorate General for Justice, European Commission • Presentation
- Jean Royné, Director General, IT News Info
- Robin Sargent, Business Development Executive, IBM Accessibility • Presentation
- Paul Smyth, Head of IT Accessibility, Barclays • Presentation
- James Thurston, Vice President, Global Strategy and Development, G3ict • Presentation
- Yves Veulliet, Global Disability & Inclusion Program Manager – Global Diversity HR, IBM • Presentation
- Frances West, Chief Accessibility Officer, IBM
Alireza Darvishy, Head, Accessibility Center, Crédit Suisse
For our clients, we provide the following accessible products and services
- Bank statements in Braille
- Bank statements in larger fonts
- Talking ATMs
- Sign language interpreter for deaf clients
- Induction system for hearing impaired clients
Axel Leblois, President and Executive Director, G3ict
Three Major Global Drivers for Accessibility
Compliance in Financial Services
- Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- United States jurisprudence and regulatory activity
- European Accessibility Act
ICT Accessibility: An Extensive Set of Dispositions in the CRPD
- Preamble – Defines accessibility as an enabler for Persons with Disabilities to exercise their rights
- Article 3 (f) – Identifies Accessibility as one of its 8 general principles
- Article 9 – Elevates ICT Accessibility obligations on par with those for the built environment and transportation
“Access/Accessible/Accessibility” – 17 uses throughout the CRPD
CRPD includes avenues for documenting failures and steps to compliance.
UN CRPD Committee Decision Sets Clear Precedent (May 16, 2013)
Case against Hungarian banks not providing accessible ATMs was submitted to CRPD Committee
Committee referred to article 9.2 (b) of the Convention
Concluded that:
- Hungary had failed its CRPD State Party obligations
- Must remedy the situation of inaccessible ATMs
UN CRPD Committee also Mandated Hungary to:
- Establish minimum standards for the accessibility of banking services provided by private financial institutions
for persons with visual and other types of impairments - Create a legislative framework with concrete, enforceable and time – bound benchmarks for monitoring and assessing the gradual modification and adjustment by private financial institutions of previously inaccessible banking services provided by them into accessible ones
- Ensure that all newly procured ATMs and other banking services are fully accessible for persons with disabilities
Dr. Monique Mai, Accessibility Group Department, Director “Communication, Remote Sales & Public Affairs,” Orange Group
Orange Accessibility’s missions
- integrate accessibility from conception to delivery
- create adapted product and service range for the seniors and disabled people (Fr, Spain…)
- develop distribution networks
- drive web accessibility policy
- communicate and set up partnerships
- public affairs (CSR, regulation, standardization)
Sara Mansell, Design Lead, IBM
IBM Design Thinking
Accessible products begin with clearly defined keyboard navigation specifications
Universal design
The design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialised design (Ron Mace, 1988)
Inclusive Design
Products, services and environments that include the needs of the widest number of consumers (UK Government 2000)
Design for All
Everything that is designed and made by people to be used by people – must be accessible, convenient for everyone in society to use and responsive to evolving human diversity (European Institute for Design and Disability (EIDD) Stockholm Declaration in 2004)
Nicola Palmarini, Global Digital Creative & Technology Advocate, IBM Accessibility / IBM Research
New clients: the aging
- Market for aging population is a >$20 Trillion World Wide opportunity.
- US – Estimated assets for this demographic $8.4 to $11.6 Trillion
- Rising Eldercare costs will disrupt economies 6% of US GDP will account for social service costs for the Elder. Double the current percentage.
The challenge is converting a world built by and for the young into a world that supports and engages population that live 100 years and beyond.
Other demographic factors affect the business
Seniors cannot be treated as a homogeneous population, but comprise different subgroups.
The third age ( young old ) describes older adults’ healthy and active life phase, which is characterized by the continuation of their former lifestyle after retirement (approximately from 65 to 80).
The fourth age ( oldest old ) beginning roughly at 80, is associated with fading health and independence.
Elderly people can also be very active
- 30% to 80% of seniors over 65 still travel.
- On average, seniors spend 5 of every 7 days outside their homes.
- 68% of seniors have their own cars.
- Two-thirds of seniors have a partner.
- 75% of seniors are grandparents.
- Approximately 70% of seniors with children see the m several times per month or week.
- 45% of seniors engage in volunteering activities .
- 42% of seniors feel healthy or very health
Some challenges
- Understand
- Need for story telling and simplification to understand and buy new business models
- Compliance & Access
- Bare access to digital services is still an issue/ Compliance is driven by business performance
- Usability and Accessibility
- Huge Usability and accessibility gap: in the United Stat es, older boomers are over 95% underserviced and senior s manage to complete only 55.3% of tasks online.
- Privacy
- Biometric rise the issue of privacy
- Fraud
- Easy of access rise the risk of fraud: in US only elder fra ud accounted for $36 Billion in losses in 2014
Inmaculada Placencia-Porrero, Deputy Head of Unit for Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Directorate General for Justice, European Commission
Why an European Accessibility Act?
Economic reasons
- Free circulation of accessible products & services
- more accessible and cheaper products/services for 80M of EU citizens • Divergence of national legislations
- fragmentation of the EU Market
- counterproductive for enterprises
- Opening markets for being ready for global competitiveness
Legal Obligations
- The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) entered into force for the EU in 2011
- Its obligations increase the risk of divergent accessibility legislations in MS
- The EAA helps to implement the obligations of article 9 on Accessibility
Products & services in the scope of the EAA
- Computers and operating systems
- ATMs, ticketing and check – in machines
- Telephones and smartphones
- TV equipment related to digital television services
- Telephony services and related equipment
- Audio – visual media services (AVMS) and related equipment
- Air, bus, rail and waterborne passenger transport services
- Banking services
- E – books
- E – commerce
Robin Sargent, Business Development Executive, IBM Accessibility
Apple, IBM, and Japan Post Group are reimagining elder care in Japan
The Aging Population is growing at rapid rate
Seniors=25 % of Japan’s population. Projected to grow to 40 percent by 2055
- Fear of being alone
- Afraid of being Institutionalized
- Concerned about someone else taking control or
- Losing control
So much of what happens within your social sphere affects your healthcare …… And depression is big issue with elderly people
IBM and Apple collaboratively designed a suite of apps that provide structure and transparency to eder care at home. There are three components
- Elder Support – handled by Postal/Commercial Elder Support Services or Assistance Worker
- Elder at Home – The Senior at home alone
- Elder Advocate – Friend, Family, Carer
Elder Support
1 of 3 interdependent apps in the Elder at Home Suite, Elder Support is for enterprise workers assigned to monitor and assist sponsored or subscribed elders living alone and using the Elder at Home app and their families using the Elder Advocate app.
Elder at Home
Central to Elder at Home Suite, the app is specially designed for use by elders providing reminders for meds, real – time interactions with family and support service provider through associated apps, and ability to incorporate 3rd party services in ecosystem established by a client organization. Such services may include shopping, community activities, and social service requests
Elder Advocate
The app for families of subscribed or sponsored seniors, it supports and interacts with senior activity on the Elder at Home app as well as Elder Support worker app for monitoring and remote support of senior for collaborative, interactive, assistance, and communication with far – away loved ones
Paul Smyth, Head of IT Accessibility, Barclays
Accessibility resources from Barclays
Ted Drake, Accessibility Principal Engineer, Intuit
Read the full presentation: Future Accessibility for Financial Services for Seniors and Persons with Disabilities
Reducing the effort for a customer will bring better usability and accessibility. The evolution from paper based financial tracking to electronic has already given users greater control over their financial records
How do we balance the need for security while also minimizing the cognitive load for our customers? Near Field Communication, bio-metrics, and multi-factor authentication have already improved the experience, what is next?