Accessibility and financial inclusion roundtable: Key discussion points and takeaways

Back in June, we hosted a roundtable that brought together leaders from the health, public, and non-profit sectors. The goal was to share insights on the current state of accessibility, the challenges facing their respective organisations, and strategies for success, with a focus on improving financial inclusion through design, policy, and technology.  
 
Last month, we held the next session in what we plan to be a series of events. This time, in partnership with Siteimprove and Life Moments, the event took place in London and focused on the financial services sector. We were pleased to bring together leaders from a diverse range of organisations, including representatives from banks, pension funds, fintech companies, and independent financial advisers. 
 
Several key themes emerged during the discussion that the participants wanted to explore further. These included improving design assurance, developing accessibility and financial inclusion policies and codes of conduct, addressing different maturity levels within teams, making earlier interventions for greater impact during delivery, and fostering a culture of transparency around sharing challenges and opportunities.  
 
Participants were also keen to discuss addressing different needs at various life stages to help people visualise scenarios before they occur, the influence of seasonality and external factors on driving awareness, the comparison between design systems and service patterns, and the stages of interest, intent, and action for consumer duty.

This summary of the discussion includes some of the themes and suggested actions to promote greater accessibility and inclusion for the sector in the future. 

Embracing and delivering accessible and inclusive services  

Accessibility and inclusion are about achieving better outcomes, in part by using clear language and removing jargon. It's essential to speak in a way that everyone can understand, and consider factors such as the national reading age, which is nine years old. Features like subtitles and dark mode, initially built for access needs, are now used more widely, and sometimes by people who wouldn't necessarily consider themselves as having access needs.  

Understanding user behaviour helps in designing content hierarchies that lead to better outcomes. Accessibility should be integrated into the mainstream and not seen as merely a compliance issue. 

Understanding accessibility and financial vulnerability (and where they might differ)  

There is an importance in differentiating between accessibility and vulnerability. In financial services, accessibility is often linked to inclusion and addressing the needs of vulnerable customers. Vulnerability is a transient state that can affect anyone at different life stages, such as during stressful financial decisions or life events. 

Attendees pointed to the 2024 survey by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which shows the scale of the challenge, and the extent to which financial inclusion will affect the majority of the population, compounded by the cost of living crisis.  

Consumer duty  

Linking accessibility efforts to consumer duty can help gain organisational buy-in. Educating financial services professionals about the overlap between consumer duty, vulnerability, and accessibility can better address customer needs. The European Accessibility Act (EAA) is also a potential key driver, as organisations don't want to be left behind if competitors adopt these practices in the EU. 

Strategies for ensuring accessibility and inclusivity  

Accessibility should be seen as a real business opportunity rather than a barrier to quick deployment. An example of this raised in discussions was Swindon Council's approach to translating documents into easy-read formats, which increased user satisfaction and understanding.  

How do we measure success? 

Consumer Duty serves as a backstop. Relationships are crucial, and clients appreciate face-to-face interactions post-COVID. Coaching and nurturing digital opportunities helps organisations comply with regulations. The goal is to help people find the right resources through education and signposting. 

The role of people with lived experience  

Getting information across in the right way is crucial. User testing helps understand individual learning styles and build curiosity and understanding among teams. Collaboration within the industry, such as through The Investing and Saving Alliance (TISA), can also drive forward significant improvements. The House of Lords is launching a disability code for entrepreneurship, and steps are being taken to make corporate banking more accessible for disabled entrepreneurs. 

Throughout the session, several ambitions were identified as ways to drive progress in the future and next steps we all might want to take: 

1. Collaboration and knowledge-sharing

Build on industry codes and standards: Establish cross-industry agreements, like the Disability Finance Code, to support efforts to address accessibility and inclusion issues across the sector. This might also include the possibility of using work done by the Financial Inclusion Commission to explore a new accessible financial services code. 

Convene regular meetings: Organise further cross-industry roundtables or a working group to share best practices, successes, and challenges, fostering collaboration over competition. 

Promote successful examples: Identify and share case studies or other success stories to inspire action and demonstrate feasibility. 

2. Regulatory engagement and advocacy

Align with consumer duty regulations: Frame accessibility and inclusion improvements as integral to meeting regulatory requirements, particularly around consumer understanding and vulnerable customer protection. 

Engage with regulators: Advocate for more flexible interpretations of compliance rules to enable user-centred innovations like simplified documents and toggles for accessible content.

3. Embedding accessibility into organisational culture

Commitment from leadership: Secure senior leadership buy-in to prioritise accessibility, ensuring resources, support, and mandates for initiatives. 

Establish experience functions: Support the creation of dedicated teams focused on customer experience and accessibility, with clear roles and responsibilities.

4. Customer-centric design

Life-event-based interventions: Tailor services to major life events (e.g., starting a job, buying a house) and ensure timely, relevant support. 

Simplify communications: Use AI and design systems to create easy-to-understand documents, such as simplified contracts or personalised videos. 

User testing with diverse populations: Include people with a wide range of access needs in usability testing to ensure inclusivity in design.

5. Leveraging technology and innovation

Adopt personalisation tools: Implement tools like toggles for accessibility options or personalised user journeys to accommodate different learning styles and needs. 

Explore AI applications: Use AI for automating accessibility features, translating complex information into simpler formats, and enhancing customer engagement.

6. Measurement and accountability

Set clear goals: Define measurable targets, such as increasing the detection of vulnerable customers by a specific percentage. 

Monitor impact: Use data and feedback to track the effectiveness of accessibility and inclusion efforts. 

Encourage action: Move beyond inspiration to concrete outputs, with commitments leading to pilots, learning, and scaling of solutions. 

Reflecting on the successes, challenges, and opportunities organisations in the sector are facing, last month’s discussion highlighted several key points. Financial vulnerability is a challenge that affects much of the population in the UK, and along with accessibility, shouldn’t be seen as an edge case, but rather as a central principle driving organisational approaches to designing products and services. Government-led initiatives around sustainability and inclusion are driving positive change, but legislative changes make it important for organisations to ensure they aren’t being left behind.  

Accessibility and inclusion are also increasingly seen as a mass market issue, and there should be a strong emphasis on learning from each other and fostering collaboration between organisations. The importance of design systems, testing with diverse and representative users, and front-end code notes was highlighted, along with the need to inspire the financial sector to take actions beyond mere pledges and establish a code of conduct for financial inclusion. From a risk perspective, the question was raised: can organisations afford not to act?  
 
If you’d like to get involved with our future events, please get in touch with us at: hello@nexerdigital.com