Title:
|
E-accessibility of online banking services for visually impaired people
|
The customers of today's global networked economy have higher demands and
expectations from their financial institutions. The growing paranoia caused by the
cyber criminals' ability to access their unauthorized personal information. Although
online banking greatly increases the convenience of banking services especially by
making many services accessible virtually anywhere, the issue of accessibility is
becoming more stringent to avoid potential threats.
In the current population, there are significant numbers that are visually impaired.
Unfortunately web developers and designers still think of Web as a purely visual
medium and are avoiding the fact that visually impaired people have the equal
access rights. This research focuses on the E-accessibility level of online banking
services in the European Union and the United States of America by conducting 2072
accessibility tests. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) -has provided the
standard of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0). The accessibility
tests were conducted using the accessibility tool Bobby-WatchFire-WebXact. The
research identified that despite standards set by the W3C, many websites still fall
short of E-accessibility. The importance of E-accessibility in developed countries is
also acknowledged but unfortunately, the solutions may not be sufficient to support
security especially providing the facility of online banking, anytime anywhere, to
disabled end users.
The security of online banking for visually impaired people is an important issue
along with accessibility and goes in parallel. Banks are using additional methods to
achieve the extra layers of security but unfortunately not for everyone. In this
research, a number of issues have been highlighted according to the perceptions and
experiences of the blind and partially blind people, by conducting a Web based
survey with the help of RNIB (Royal National Institute for Blind) UK. Conclusions have
been made about issues of accessibility and security.
The survey conducted by collecting in total 81 responses (63 online responses + 18
interviews). The participants of the survey shared their experiences and barriers in
online banking in terms of accessibility and security according to their own
perceptions.
By analyzing and evaluating 2072 websites to measure the accessibility level in this
research, it has been concluded that 66% websites of online banking services in the
European Union and 87% in the United States of America do not meet the minimum
standard of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0) outlined by W3C. With
the advent of additional security devices to enhance the security layers of online
banking services, from the tested sample of 81 visually impaired people, this
research found that 55% of blind population in United Kingdom, doing online
banking previously, now cannot without the help of others. It is likely that the
remaining 45% never had the experience of the features being offered to them by
their financial institutions. Had they also been come across the situation would have
been more aggrieved.
|