News

The Australian Bankers' Association has released a set of guiding principles it hopes will assist more accessible banking for people with disabilities and older Australians.

The principles promote strong authentication technologies, particularly for online and telephone banking, that should be accessible to all customers.

The principles recommend financial institutions consult customers with a disability when planning and testing authentication methods, ensure that online messages are written in 'plain English' and provide customer support staff with training to raise awareness of the needs of customers with disabilities.

Australian Human Rights Commissioner Graeme Innes welcomed the release of the guiding principles.

"Businesses throughout the world are developing a range of authentication systems for use with services such as ATMs and Internet banking, including tokens, SMS messaging and biometric systems such as retina scanning," he said in a 3 December media release.

"However, if you cannot read access codes, hear instructions or manipulate tokens because of your age or disability, there is a danger you will become disadvantaged by the very systems that provide better security and convenience to other customers."

The principles were established with the assistance of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Blind Citizens Australia and the Physical Disability Council, along with banking organisations.

The Guiding Principles for Accessible Authentication can be downloaded from the Australian Bankers' Association website.

Source:   Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, via PDCA mailing list, Posted: 04-12-2007