Using accessibility principles on digital and Fintech
- Elliot López
- Jan 3, 2023
- 3 min read
Fintech are getting universal, how are they ensuring are available for everyone?
Digital accessibility, commonly abbreviated to a11y, has the objective of designing and building digital products that, regardless of a person's disability, can still interact with the product in a meaningful and equivalent way.
Creating digital assets with full inclusivity in mind requires:
Expert knowledge of various accessibility standards
Understanding the fundamentals of accessible designs and code
Understanding the importance of using multiple testing techniques and tools
“More than 1 billion people worldwide have a long term disability.”
Some disabled users have specific needs for which assistive technology has been developed to enable their access to computers and the web. Examples of this technology are screen readers that read out the content of the screen for blind web users and screen magnifiers that enlarge content.
Assistive software relies on accessibly designed web pages, so that disabled web users are able to understand what is on a web page and how to navigate the site.
Types of impairments
Visual: Blindness, colour blindness and tunnel vision.
Hearing: Deafness or partial hearing.
Mobility: Difficulty in motor control of all or part of the body.
Cognitive: This includes a wide range of conditions including memory impairments and attention disorders.
Learning: Dyslexia, attention disorders, retention problems.
Examples of assistive technology and aids:
Vision: Screen reader on phone / enlarge text
Hearing: Captions on mobile
Mobility: Bluetooth keyboard / assistive mouse
Cognitive: Breaking down content into small manageable chunks
Why is Accessibility Important in Fintech?
Accessibility in FinTech Opens Up Financial Services to More People
Fintech that are developed in line with digital accessibility guidelines can be used by people with disabilities, accessing the same financial services that non-disabled people can. One of many Fintech innovations for disabled people is Talking Cash Machines that ensure blind people can access their cash without help from non-disabled people.
It Increases Trust
When your Fintech product is digitally accessible, it portrays an image that you care about people living with disabilities. As a result, they will be inclined to trust you and patronize you more than they would FinTechs that don’t offer the same features.
Must-have Options for Accessible Solutions in FinTech
Main points to consider:
Chatbots
Audio Transcripts
Provide Keyboard Functionality
Some examples of Digital accessibility
Shift – is one of the greatest examples of the digital accessibility. We start with a big ‘Start a conversation’ banner that appears for the first tab. With the help of transition styles when tabbing between elements. And the thick border on the focus indicator. The site is also a great example of how to achieve a beautiful design that meets accessibility requirements.
Large, high-res, and captivating imagery is easy on the eye – even for partially-sighted site users. Colours are distinct. There's large font sizing and line spacing – and well-designed buttons. One of the things we like most about this site is the ‘Accessibility’ page – which you can find easily in the main navigation. The page sets out Shift’s commitment to accessibility, but also provides support for people who want to customize their experience. The approach is fully transparent and demonstrates Scope’s commitment to improve the experience of users with access needs.
Small text size can be a big hurdle for low-vision users, who rely on web browsers to scale text to a more comfortable size. For that reason, WCAG recommends that websites (1) avoid using images to display text and (2) ensure that resizing text does not cause it to spill off the screen.
WCAG SC 1.4.4 Resize text requires that text can be resized without assistive technology up to 200 percent without loss of content or functionality.
Younited credit lets users scale text on its website by up to 300% without disrupting the user experience.
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