Today I got to speak at the accessible banking conference in Brussels, organised by the European Blind Union and AccessibleEU, on a panel about making banking services actually work for everyone. I was joined by @ErikGustafsson and @DanielGoransson from #AxessLab, Hendrik Bourgeois from #Mastercard, and moderator Anna Martin from #BEUC.
Axess Lab kicked things off with a fantastic demo of a public touchscreen that starts speaking as soon as you explore it with your finger. That alone could solve a lot of the problems blind people face with lockers, kiosks, and terminals that currently rely only on visuals.
We talked about how inaccessible systems aren’t just annoying–they’re risky. If you have to tell your PIN to someone else just to pay, something’s seriously wrong. Another strong point was that accessibility isn’t something you can just add on at the end–it has to be part of how teams work, from product design to customer support. Otherwise, it just doesn’t stick well.