TORONTO, June 6, 2023
/CNW/ - On June 1, Scotiabank
released its inaugural Accessible Canada Act Accessibility Plan,
which outlines the Bank's commitment to identifying, preventing,
and removing barriers for persons with disabilities.
To develop its 2023-2026 Accessibility Plan, Scotiabank
approached its customers, employees, and the public to get their
feedback on improvements Scotiabank could make to become a more
accessible and inclusive bank to persons with
disabilities.
"Scotiabank remains committed to learning from our customers and
identifying new capabilities to ensure an accessible banking
experience for all," said Shawn
Rose, Scotiabank's Chief Technology Officer and Executive
Champion of the Bank's DiversAbility Employee Resource Group. "As
part of the work of our design and engineering teams, we aim to
ensure that our websites and mobile apps are built with
accessibility at the forefront and are continually evaluated to
improve the accessibility of our products, for every future."
Scotiabank strives to ensure that all of its customers are able
to access barrier free banking with dignity and independence. Over
the last few years, the Bank has invested in developing improved
capabilities, including:
- Engineered accessibility into the core of the Bank's global
design system. Accessibility is part of the brand, visual design,
and code, and is tested with assistive technology. All new
components added to the system are tested for accessibility and
conform with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
- Established the Enterprise Accessibility Centre of Excellence
in 2020, that embraces, embodies, and champions the need for
accessible and inclusive practices that treat Scotiabank customers
and colleagues with the respect and dignity they deserve. The Bank
aims to achieve this by fostering a culture of inclusion through
informed strategy, scalable processes, and distributed
accountability that puts people with disabilities at the centre:
"nothing about us without us."
- Established the Global Wealth Management accessibility program
to ensure focused and customized efforts are made to achieve
digital accessibility goals across the Global Wealth Management
business lines. The program has three workstreams: (1) websites,
(2) web content, and (3) to support ongoing sustainment of
accessibility in digital customer experiences. Through the program,
the Bank is updating more than 25 web properties across more than
eight business units to follow WCAG for websites and web
content.
In addition to releasing its Accessibility Plan, Scotiabank
recently launched a redesigned Accessibility site:
www.scotiabank.com/accessibility. The public is encouraged to visit
the site to learn more about the accessibility
features offered through its banking channels, and
how Scotiabank's accessibility team designs and builds for
inclusivity.
Scotiabank is committed to meeting the needs of their customers
and employees with a range of sight, mobility, hearing, and
cognitive abilities and providing banking that is easy, accessible,
and inclusive. Through a broad suite of digital banking tools,
each customer is empowered to control how and when they bank,
regardless of their ability, context, or situation. To support
ongoing progress, Scotiabank will continue to consult with persons
with disabilities to learn from and improve the overall banking
experience. Customers, shareholders and community members are
invited to review the Plan and provide feedback through the
Scotiabank's Accessibility Feedback Process.
Scotiabank is committed to providing an inclusive workplace.
This means fostering an environment where employees with
disabilities are respected for who they are and can reach their
full potential. Scotiabank is working to achieve this through
strategic initiatives that not only look to remove barriers but
increase inclusion, and equitable representation of People with
Disabilities at all levels and areas of the organization. The
strategy includes increasing the representation of People with
Disabilities (PWD) by 20 per cent over by 2025.
About Scotiabank
Scotiabank is a leading bank in the Americas. Guided by our
purpose: "for every future", we help our customers, their families
and their communities achieve success through a broad range of
advice, products and services, including personal and commercial
banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and
investment banking, and capital markets. With a team of over 90,000
employees and assets of over $1.3 trillion (as
at April 30, 2023), Scotiabank trades on the Toronto Stock
Exchange (TSX: BNS) and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BNS). For
more information, please
visit http://www.scotiabank.com and follow us on Twitter
@Scotiabank.
SOURCE Scotiabank