Speakers urge ensuring financial inclusion across digital banking

Speakers called for digital accessibility for all citizens, including persons with disabilities, mandatory across digital banking and mobile-based financial services, stressing that the accessibility will further promote business and ensure financial inclusion.

Persons with disabilities, particularly visually impaired, face troubles in using digital banking and mobile-based financial services. Hence, it is imperative to ensure assistive technology for ensuring their accessibility, they observed.

Speaking at the National Dissemination Meeting on Digital Accessibility Audit Findings held at Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation Bhaban, Agargaon, Dhaka, they called for prioritizing accessible PIN, OTP, CAPTCHA, KYC and transaction workflows.

They stressed on providing accessible customer support and complaint channels.

They urged the government to take necessary initiatives to make accessibility mandatory across digital products, services, mobile applications and websites, ensuring that they are usable by persons with different types of disabilities, including persons with visual impairments.

The speakers emphasized that persons with disabilities, who comprise around 15 per cent of the total population, are an integral part of society and cannot be left behind in the country’s digital transformation.
They noted that digital accessibility is essential to ensure equal, independent and dignified access to information, public services, financial services, news and other digital platforms. Excluding a significant segment of the population would also undermine efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).