British Sign Language Now Available On Nationwide’s Website
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Nationwide has launched an innovative digital service for customers with hearing problems by offering its platform in British Sign Language (BSL) in honor of Sign Language Week.
Launched in collaboration with Signly, a BSL technology firm, contents are presented as pre-captured signed videos, featuring the top-ranked web pages. Content will increase as time goes by and users will be given the option to choose any fresh pages to be interpreted.
Nationwide Aim To Improve Access For The Deaf Community
The head of customer accessibility at Nationwide, Kathryn Townsend, expressed that British Sign Language is a visually rich language. Though, the newly launched BSL Act which legally recognizes it as the language of Wales, Scotland, and England, and the forthcoming introduction of the BSL GCSE indicates progress, barriers persist.
The team acknowledges that for users of BSL, available communication formats are limited, and has plan to introduce a new service as part of their dedication to the deaf community.
With the collaborative effort with deaf charities and individuals with expertise, the firm aims to improve accessibility to vital financial information.
Nationwide, based in Columbus, Ohio, is a Fortune 100 firm known to be one of the strongest and largest financial services and diversified insurance organizations in the U.S. It is rated A+ by both A.M. Best and Standard & Poor’s. Know for driving customer-focused innovation, Nationwide offers an extensive range of financial and insurance services such as farm and life insurance, homeowners, businesses, and others.
Nationwide Wants To Allow Customers To Digitally Record Their Support Needs Easily
Nationwide’s rollout arrives at a time when the national charity British Deaf Association (BDA) is escalating its calls for greater recognition of the requirements of the deaf community. It was estimated that BSL is the inaugural language of more than 87,000 deaf people living in the UK, indicating that written English is unreachable for many.
A survey conducted by the Lending Standards Board (LSB), a self-regulatory banking authority revealed that 59% of Licensed banking companies provided remote BSL access through video and 65% provided BSL services in-branch. Only 6% offered Direct access to website content.
The introduction of the service enhances the current array of accessibility services provided by Nationwide. These services include in-branch BSL interpretation and integrating SignVideo BSL into contact centers.
The financial institution is also partaking in Experian’s Support Hub program. This initiative allows customers to note down their support requirements digitally and distribute them to many firms more easily.
