As bank President, it is your responsibility to make sure that the virtual properties of your bank are accessible to people with disabilities. This is required by law and the regulations and guidelines are strict. If a bank is not compliant, they risk being sued by consumers, which can cost tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars and damage their reputation. 

Today, most banks have moved to a digital platform. This means that they have apps that allow you to do many different things, like deposit money and transfer funds. In order to stay competitive, you need to have virtual capabilities that are accessible from the web and compliant with the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). 

Based on the way the ADA is written, not having an accessible website is active discrimination and it can get you sued. 

Web accessibility means that websites are designed and developed so that people with disabilities can use them. More specifically, people can: perceive, understand, navigate and interact with the Web. 

Many local and community banks have accessibility statements on their websites. These statements may claim that they are consistent with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). But lapses in technology and other issues may cause breakdowns that the bank may not even be aware of. 

If your bank website is not up to date on the latest compliancy requirements, it could alienate disabled and non-disabled clients. It could cause them to go to another bank. 

In the most recent DOJ (Department of Justice) affirmation, all business-related websites are now considered places of public accommodations and must be accessible for people with disabilities.

Although it’s impossible to say how many demand letters have been sent out regarding accessibility issues and how many private settlements have been made, we can say that there were 10,982 filed in federal court in 2020. 

If you don’t comply with the law, you can get sued. Financial companies that have been sued for not complying with the law include Bank of America, H& R Block and Charles Schwab. In New York, 12 banks were found guilty of violating New York’s State’s human rights law by having inaccessible websites.  

According to a study by Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania, 3 out of 5 people with vision disabilities cannot use a financial website or app because of accessibility barriers. Making your website or app compliant with the right features can help you keep these clients and attract others who may be going to other institutions because they do not have accessible options. 

The ADA is what’s known as a ‘no fault state’. That means that you can’t claim innocence because you weren’t aware of the laws. Therefore, your client’s business Is considered to have broken the law regardless of what information you may or may not have been privy to. 

As bank President, it’s important to make sure you are up to date on ADA compliance. 

Fortunately, there is guidance that banks can use to become compliant. This comes in the form of WCAG. 

What is the WCAG and How Does it Affect Your Bank?

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) play an important role in ADA compliance. The World Wide Web’s Consortium or (WC3) is an international organization that is known for providing clear criteria for the web’s best practices. WCAG documents explain how web content can be made more accessible for people with disabilities. 

WCAG 2.2 recommendations are expected soon.

There is a total of 78 WCAG 2.1 success criteria (not including conformance criteria).

WCAG 2.1 categorize accessibility issues into three levels as follows:

• Level A: This level pertains to urgent problems that limit a disabled person’s ability to use the website. 
• Level AA: This level is assigned to sites with areas that can be improved to provide a disabled person with a better user experience. 
• Level AAA: Reaching Level AAA involves fine tuning to improve accessibility issues. It is unachievable for most websites. 

Accessibility issues are further broken down by the WCAG into four groups that go by the acronym P.O.U.R. These include:

• Perceivable: Perceivable issues reduce the person’s ability to find and process information on the website. An example would be videos without subtitles for the hearing impaired. 
• Operable: Operable issues impact the user’s ability to navigate and use the site. These can include a site that can only function via keyboard commands that are not integrated into the tools made for disabled persons. 
• Understandable: This pertains to issues the user may have in understanding the information on the web page and how the site operates. To comply, the web site should have readable and understandable text content, web pages that appear and operate according to the norm, and it should provide assistance so users can avoid and correct mistakes.
• Robust: The site should be robust so that it can be interpreted by a variety of users including disabled individuals. 

Further Reasons Why Your Bank Should be Accessible 

ADA compliance offers several benefits that are desirable for your bank’s business. A few include: 

When a bank becomes ADA compliant, it shows that it cares about all of its customers, including those who have disabilities. Being inclusive is more important than ever before and this holds true for banks. 

Making your bank fully ADA compliant can put it ahead of the competition. Many other banks and financial institutions are not up to date with ADA compliance laws, so you can have an edge by being ahead of the curve. Additionally, this can give you an edge when it comes to online funding options that are becoming more and more popular.

If you are not ADA compliant, you are limiting your potential customers. Nearly 61 million people (1 in 4 US adults, 26% of adults and 2 in 5 adults age 65+) have disabilities that could impact their ability to use your bank’s website. 

Should Your Bank Work with its Existing Website Partner or Outsource to a Strategic Accessibility Specialist?

There are pros and cons to both relying on your existing website partner for accessibility compliance and outsourcing the work to a company that specializes in ADA & WCAG accessibility. You will need to weigh the options carefully and make a decision that is best for your bank. 

Hiring a new company to work on your website can seem unnecessary. After all, you already have a web company that you work with and they have built your website 

But there are also questions about your web partner. Do they have the right accessibility expertise in their team? Have they been trained and certified in accessibility? 

If you want to make your website truly and fully accessible to people with disabilities, it can be a good idea to team up with an ADA & WCAG compliance partner. But you need to make sure you partner with the right company. Here are some things you should look for when choosing a partner. 

There are two main types of testing for ADA & WCAG compliance: automated and manual. Unfortunately, automated testing only finds about 35% of the issues. To find all the issues, manual testing is needed for the other 65%. In addition to finding issues, the company should also be able to do remediation (fix the issues). 

Make sure that the manual remediations are done by someone who knows how to make websites accessible. Most front-end and back-end developers do not know how to make websites accessible according to WCAG 2.1 guidelines. 

A good ADA & WCAG strategic partner should help educate banks about accessibility and compliance issues. This will help ensure that banks are aware of any potential problems that could arise. 

Everyone likes a good deal, but if the company you partner with offers a suspiciously low price, they may not be able to provide the comprehensive services you need. It’s best to partner with a group of certified experts who have the background expertise and specialize in web accessibility. 

Make sure to avoid partnering with an overlay product that charges a low monthly fee. No overlay product can make a website fully accessible, much less conformant to major industry standards. While some overlay products can fix some accessibility issues, the extent of those fixes are small. Additionally, the “widgets” provided by overlays are often a poorly executed attempt at replicating capabilities that already exist in the features of the user’s browser and/ or operating system settings.

A Hybrid Model: Your Website Partner Works with Your Accessibility Partner 

The goal is to have your bank’s website comply with accessibility guidelines so that everyone, including those with disabilities, can use it. Your accessibility partner should be able to work with your website partner to make sure the website meets all the requirements. This could mean filling in any gaps where the website partner does not have expertise. These could include automated and/or manual auditing of the website, remediation (Fixing the issues), ongoing monthly and quarterly monitoring and maintenance, or having the accessibility partner do upfront and/or continuing education training with the website partner and the bank

The WCAG 2.2 recommendations are expected soon, so this partnership would also include education on these new recommendations.

With so much at stake, getting web accessibility done right is critical for a bank. 

About inclusve 

inclusve is an Austin, TX based web accessibility company with a mission for digital equality for everyone, including those with disabilities. We do this by ensuring websites and mobile apps are fully accessible, so that all users can enjoy an equal experience. 

inclusive offers accessibility, solutions to banks so that they can offer true accessibility and compliance programs to their customers. This includes automated and manual WCAG audits, remediation (fixes), VPAT Certification, monthly monitoring and maintenance and training and education. 

Our mission: inclusve for everyone! https://inclusve.com/