The image shows the “Make the Right Real in Malaysia” logo of The OKU Rights Matter website and an image of two smiling brothers, the older with his right hand over the right shoulder of the younger one with spinal muscular atrophy and using a wheelchair.

Banking and Financial Services

Banking and Financial Services

A large number of persons with disabilities are unable to access banking and financial services autonomously and independently. This is due to a combination of physical and structural limitations in accessing financial institutions and misperceptions about the ability of persons with disabilities to handle personal finances. (Global Initiative for Inclusive ICTs, 2015).

Data collected in 2017 by the National Disability Institute (USA) regarding the banking status and financial behaviours of persons with disabilities revealed that:

  • Households with a disability were three times more likely to have no current or savings account compared to households with no disability (18 percent versus 6 percent).
  • Households with disabilities were more likely to rely on bank officers and less likely to use online or mobile banking facilities. Thirty-seven percent of households with a disability used online or mobile as the primary method to access their account compared with 62 percent of households with no disability.
  • Compared to households without a disability, those with a disability were much less likely to have a credit card, store credit, mortgage or home equity, vehicle loan or student loan.

Banking Challenges Faced by Persons with Disabilities in Malaysia

In Malaysia, persons with disabilities continue to face many barriers, and even exclusion, to accessing banking and financial services. Some of them are:

  • Inconsistent banking policies for Blind and Visually Impaired persons.
  • Inaccessible banking websites and applications
  • Inaccessible ATM machines.
  • Inaccessible buildings.
  • Inaccessible banking information.

The following articles highlight the challenges faced by Malaysian persons with disabilities in accessing banking and financial services:

Disability-Inclusive Banking and Financial Services

Financial institutions must make their services accessible, non-discriminating and inclusive to all persons with disabilities:

  • Non-discriminating policies towards persons with disabilities.
  • Disability-sensitive and disability-inclusive training for all staff members and leaders.
  • Accessible buildings and built facilities.
  • Accessible Automated Teller Machines (ATM) at wheelchair accessible height.
  • Banking information that is accessible to all, such as:
  1. Braille;
  2. Captions/subtitles and sign language interpretation in videos;
  3. Images with alt text;
  4. Screenreader accessible pdf files;
  5. Written in plain and easy-to-understand language.
  • Sign language interpretation services – Bahasa Isyarat Malaysia (BIM).
  • Websites that are compliant with the latest Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) criteria.
  • Banking mobile applications that are compliant with the latest WCAG criteria.

Resources

*Note: Resources linked are in English and pdf or webpage format unless stated otherwise.

Banking status and financial behaviors of adults with disabilities by the National Disability Institute.

Digital Accessibility in Financial Services: It’s Critical and Here’s Why by Essential Accessibility.

Making Online Banking and ATMs Accessible to People with Disabilities by Level Access.

Banking on Accessibility: A case for accessible banking for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) by Xavier’s Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC) [See below Description of images in the pdf]

A collage of five graphic images in the clockwise direction and starting from the top left:
The first top left image shows the index finger of a right hand on a numeric keypad (numpad) that has numbers in both large print and in Braille.
The second image is of a wheelchair user using an ATM installed at a lowered height that is more convenient for wheelchair users.
The third image shows a mobile phone in the hands of its user who is performing a transaction while using a screen reader.
The fourth image (in the row below the third image) shows a pair of hands doing Internet banking on a laptop and by using a screen reader.
The fifth image shows a person standing at an ATM who is wearing dark glasses and operating the ATM via a headset connected to the ATM.
The background of the cover page is white with a design across the top left and bottom right corners of the page. The design is composed of a red diagonal stripe above a purple diagonal stripe.
along the right edge.
On the title page, the last page and as a footer on every page of the publication is a design composed of a stylized eye on the right of a crest. The crest shows an eagle teaching its young to fly. Above it, on the left side is the emblem of the Society of Jesus, which consists of the first three Greek initials for “Jesus” set in a sun; on the right is a chequered moon, taken from the arms of the House of Xavier. On a white banner under the shield that shows the above elements is a black-edged white banner with the Latin motto (Challenging to Fly) of St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, India: Provocans Ad Volandum.

How To Make Online Banking Disabled-People-Friendly by Sachin Gulhane, Cognizant

Inclusive Banking: Emerging Practices to Advance the Economic Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities by the International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group