Retail Banks and Web Accessibility [Sector Snapshot]

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Accessibility

Most of us have had to shift our daily lives online since the start of the pandemic - whether that’s for work, education, socializing, shopping or managing our personal finances. How do the big five UK retail banks perform when it comes to accessibility? We take a look in our latest sector snapshot. By Margaret Cooney and Pilao Lab’s accessibility team.

There’s a whole new breed of agile Fintechs that are ready to pounce on the opportunity to serve new customers, that had previously been overlooked by more traditional finacial institutions. Challenger banks like Revolut, Monzo and Starling are not burdened by legacy technology and tradition. They operate a customer-centred approach from the outset. What this means in practice for the current retail banking leaders is that they must adapt in order to retain customer loyalty and extend their reach into untapped markets.

The major retail banks have been encouraging their customers to carry out banking transactions through their digital channels and apps for some time, because it cuts costs and overheads. With the arrival of the COVID-19 this trend has only accelerated, and the shift towards digital banking looks like it will continue.

For people with disabilities the logistics of gaining access to their money and paying bills is not easy under normal circumstances – let alone a pandemic – so in our latest sector snapshot we take a look at the UK’s top five retail banks and test their accessibility.

Most people conduct their banking transactions through apps but, to get in touch with a bank, a customer must first locate the main landing page. A commitment to accessibility should run all the way through organisational digital channels - so that means the landing page matters. It’s the shop window, or the digital equivalent of the fast-disappearing high street branch.

The Big Hack’s Banking Survey, 2020 looked at how the UK’s main banks were supporting their disabled customers during the coronavirus pandemic. This is a useful guide to what the main UK banks are doing to help their customers online and in branches during the pandemic. The Big Hack is an initiative hosted by the charity Scope, which also has useful advice and support to help disabled people understand their rights when it comes to accessible banking services.

Accessibility and inclusion are often used interchangeably, which can be confusing. But inclusion definitely matters for people who experience barriers in accessing financial products and services. Two recent reports produced by the Money Advice Trust and Fair by Design offer comprehensive advice to both regulators and firms about what they can do to help. It shows how an inclusive design approach can be used to improve outcomes for customers, particularly those classed as vulnerable.

The report for regulators (PDF 18.5 MB) explains what they can do to embed inclusive design in the development of financial products and services. But it also draws attention to the worrying fact that disability and age-related conditions also tend to be correlated with low income – so these consumers are often doubly disadvantaged.

Both reports are an invaluable resource for anyone interested in making services fairer and more accessible.

Top 5 UK Retail Banks and Website Accessibility Table

The table below shows how the landing pages of the UK’s top five retail banks perform on accessibility.

Scroll down to see these result in an accessible table

Lloyds came out best in our survey, and the Big Hack survey seems to bear this out. It’s encouraging to see that Lloyds is committed to accessibility. The company has partnered with Ability.net to make their products and services more accessible and has taken a number of other steps to support disabled customers, including tuition. Phone advisers are also available to vulnerable customers.

Barclays has made a strong commitment developing accessible banking services, and states a clear ambition to become the most accessible bank. The Big Hack mentions that it is regarded as an industry leader, listing the various ways it helps customers. Barclays is the only bank with a Twitter account, @BarclaysAccess, that encourages disabled customers to engage in a dialogue with them about their needs.

The remaining three have committed to providing accessible and compliant online banking. RBS (who are part of the Natwest Group) offers online support to vulnerable customers, and a vulnerable customers helpline, open from 8am to 8pm every day. It also offers SignVideo and Text Relay support for telephone banking.

Santander, which isn’t included in the Big Hack survey, says that its websites are regularly tested by with an accessibility partner and involves people with a variety of disabilities. It aims to improve online accessibility in line with advances in technology and web standards; but we found 20 serious issues and five moderate issues on its main website.

Finally, the HSBC corporate accessibility statement describes the way in which it ensures its websites comply with WCAG 2.0; but our snapshot found 18 serious and two critical issues. We would hope that it, and the other banks, are moving to the WCAG 3.0 standards released last month.  

All of the banks we surveyed are making concerted efforts to support disabled customers across the range of their products and services. This is really encouraging. But, as Barclay’s Head of Digital Accessibility, Paul Smyth says: “Accessibility is a journey and not a destination” – and they could all do more.

Banks should also be aware of the importance of retaining human contact for their vulnerable customers. From the perspective of a disabled customer, this is vital. Pilao Labs’ accessibility expert Gary McFarlane wrote about this in the context of government websites, stressing the need for more empathy in online services.

Accenture’s 2020 Global Banking Consumer Study also found that the rush to digital was depriving banks of their human touch, and recommended that banks should fundamentally rethink where, when and how they bring humanity and personality back into the customer experience. We think that if they do this alongside their digital innovations, it would help them to have a much more positive impact – particularly for their most vulnerable customers.

About the research

We used a combination of automated and manual testing methods. Automated accessibility tests are an inexpensive way to catch many easily-preventable errors such as basic coding errors, which can produce quick wins. For example, one tweak to a template may fix multiple pages across a site.

The automated tools we used included Google Lighthouse, Dynomapper, Wave and Rocket Validator and Deque’s Axe-core.

Human-centred manual testing is more time-consuming yet also more valuable, as it involves human judgment – something that can’t be replaced with technology. It involves looking at websites on different devices and browsers, and picks up on User Experience (UX) areas that automated tools are currently incapable of understanding.

Our assessment included testing the following:

1. ARIA (Assistive Rich Internet Applications) - www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/aria/

2. Contrast - www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/contrast-minimum

3. Navigation and keyboard accessibility - www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/#consistent-navigation

4. Names and labels - www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/label-in-name

5. Tables and lists - www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/tables/

These five areas are key aspects of web accessibility, and together give a good indication of how accessible a website is overall.

Our ranking score is based on the average number of critical, serious and moderate issues found per page. Examples of these issues are as follows:

• Critical: Buttons must have discernible text; form elements must have names and labels; images must have alternate text.

• Serious: <li> elements must be contained in a <ul> or <ol>; form elements should have a visible label; elements must have sufficient colour contrast.

• Moderate: Heading levels should only increase by one; the skip-link target should exist and be focusable.

About Sector Snapshots

Our ‘Sector Snapshots’ are exactly that – a look at particular sectors at a moment in time. These results may change over time (and hopefully improve!), as websites change and develop.

We’ll be testing the corporate websites of five leading organisations in different sectors in the coming months, and producing a series of ‘Sector Snapshots’ testing the performance of these websites against basic accessibility criteria. We will also do the same for search engine optimisation (SEO) – and revisit each Sector Snapshot periodically to assess changes and improvements over time.

Top 5 UK Retail Banks and Website Accessibility Table

WCAG 2.1 issues */page

	Lloyds	Barclays	RBS	Santander	HSBC
ARIA	Failed	Failed	Failed	Failed	Failed
Contrast	Passed	Failed	Failed	Failed	Passed
Navigation	Passed	Failed	Failed	Failed	Failed
Names & Labels	Passed	Failed	Passed	Failed	Failed
Tables & Lists	Failed	Failed	Failed	Failed	Failed
Issues Found*
Critical	1	0	0	0	2
Serious	7	8	11	20	18
Moderate	0	2	2	5	7
Ranking
Rank	1	2	3	4	5

Methodology

Pilao Labs tested the homepages from the top 5 UK Retail Banks websites using a combination of automated and guided tests including Rocket Validator (Axe-core), Google Lighthouse, Dynomapper and Wave. Tests run from 14-17 January 2021.

About Pilao Labs

Pilao Labs specialises in online accessibility and optimization. We believe that every organisation with a digital presence should provide the best possible user experience. By removing the barriers in digital technology, you will better understand your audiences and improve your accessibility compliance.

Get in touch to see how we can help you with a detailed accessibility audit of your websites, with detailed results and practical guidance for improving your accessibility compliance.

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