Today, due to technology driven services the financial sector offers digital services, and yet, it’s also common for these digital services to be inaccessible to people with disabilities.
On 4th of November 2020, Lesotho National League of the Visually Impaired Persons (LNLVIP) facilitated a one-day training on inclusive Bank Services, funded by Norwegian Association of the Blind and Partially Sighted Persons (NABP). LNLVIP has started with bank staff training which is the first training. The training programme stretches till 2024 with an intend to train different staff members every year.
The training drew participants from six local banks; Nedbank, Standard bank, Boliba savings and Credit, First National Bank, Lesotho Post Bank and Central Bank of Lesotho, and visually impairment customers.
The purpose of the training was to mainstream disability in their banking services in order to ensure inclusive services to their Visually Impaired customers. Training and Sensitization allows staff to understand more about people with vision loss or impairment and teaches the staff how to best serve all clients.
Blind and Visually impaired clients face a number of challenges. As explained by one of the participants;
“I will find it difficult entering pin numbers because some ATMs lack braille systems and absence of voice feedback for various on-screen functions”
The banking sector should work towards improving accessibility to banking services and providing reasonable accommodation for visually impaired persons.
Integrate accessibility into their system.
The rights of persons with disabilities have been recognized under legal instruments such as UNCRPD and SDG’s. Though, they do not have direct bearing with banking they are instrumental in developing an “accessibility policy” that can be added to bank’s overall customer service policy.
The training helped the staff to gain confidence in communicating with people who are blind or visually impaired and becoming familiar with asking people if they will require an alternative to standard print documents.
The purpose of this training was to ensure that bank staff understand disability related needs for them to access services, disability and its underlying terms and how to provide reasonable accommodation.
Mabataung Khetsi
Lesotho National League of the Visually Impaired Persons (LNLVIP)
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