Trends and the future of credit card accessibility and inclusion
Being able to access financial services is a key part of economic independence. As part of this, and for a fair financial landscape, it’s essential that credit card services are inclusive. Yet for many individuals, particularly those with disabilities, accessing credit and using credit cards seamlessly remains a challenge.
Fortunately, a mix of emerging technologies, forward-thinking policies and user advocacy are beginning to move the credit card industry towards a more inclusive future.
In this guide, we look at the challenges to accessibility and, as a result, the risks of financial exclusion for people with disabilities. We also explore some initiatives that have been successful. An introduction to inaccessibility in goods and services.
Nearly one in four (16.1 million) people in the UK had a disability in 2022/23, according to the Department for Work and Pensions’ family resources survey (FRS). Yet their lived experiences aren’t always reflected in data and evidence. The risk of this is that research may not adequately capture the issues faced by disabled people and therefore there’s limited insight into how to make improvements.
One such evidence gap was disabled people’s experiences with private sector activities, goods and services across the UK – something the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has now conducted qualitative research on. Goods and services could encompass numerous financial services, including banking, credit providers, or insurance companies.
The research highlighted numerous barriers to access, including “physical access, restrictive building layouts, inaccessible online services, poor information provision and inflexible design of customer services that do not consider accessibility for a broad range of needs.”
As recorded by the House of Lords Library, in attempts to overcome these common barriers, people with disabilities had to:
- Make extensive preparations
- Develop workarounds, often relying on friends and family
- Take on additional physical, emotional and financial costs
- Experience worries about judgement from others, including negative stereotypes
When related to financial services, the barriers could have numerous impacts on someone’s financial health. For example, it could prevent people accessing additional funds they need; it may make it trickier to pay back credit owed; or it could lead to costly mistakes such as falling victim to a scam. On the other hand, inclusive credit card services would mean greater independence and economic participation for disabled people.
What is credit card accessibility?
It's the design and functionality of credit card services to ensure everyone can use them effectively. Meaningful inclusion considers all user requirements. For example, this could be tactile card designs or mobile apps equipped with screen reader compatibility for users with visual impairments.
Accessibility goes beyond physical cards and encompasses all the services involved with credit cards. This includes digital platforms, customer service experiences and even advertisement materials.
How much of a problem is financial inaccessibility?
Exploring the financial wellbeing of disabled people in the UK, a research team from the University of Bristol and the Research Institute for Disabled Consumers (RiDC) found that accessibility is a huge problem within financial services. The scale of the issue is highlighted by the following statistics, revealing that everyday banking is difficult:
- 53% of disabled people surveyed reported difficulties getting to a bank branch
- 37% had problems getting to or using a cash machine
And other financial services are hard for disabled people to access too:
- 18% of disabled people feared switching products due to the risk of scams or making a mistake
- 16% worried about disclosing their impairment in case firms withdrew insurance cover or charged them more
Adding to the challenge, the report found, is the reality that when individuals tried to access information or advice on financial matters, only 29% were satisfied with the quality of what was available. It also noted that “it was not uncommon for disabled people to report being turned down for credit or insurance products or to be offered products on terms they felt to be expensive and/or unfair.”
Key accessibility challenges
There are some recurring barriers to credit card access and their use:
- Product design. When financial products aren’t designed with all users in mind, it can make it much harder for disabled people to actually use them. For example, as highlighted by a UK Parliament report, flat bank cards without embossing (including credit cards) can be problematic for many blind and partially sighted people’s ability to carry out financial tasks independently. It makes it harder to identify the right card, which could lead to putting in the wrong PIN or even having their accounts blocked. In an increasingly cashless society, this can make payments incredibly difficult.
- Physical access. It’s not just the products but the infrastructure of financial companies which can cause challenges. In the report mentioned above, Vivienne Francis, Chief Social Change Officer at the Royal Institute of Blind People (RNIB) highlighted data from LINK (the UK's main ATM network) which showed:
- Only 36% of ATMs have audio assistance
- 37% don’t have audio assistance
- 27% don’t have any data collected on them
- In-person customer service. Linked to the above, there’s also the growing challenge of bank branches being closed. Over the course of ten years (between 2012 and 2022), the total number of bank and building society branches fell by 40%, with many banks remaining open but with reduced hours. The number of cash machines also fell, by 25% over a four-year period, between 2018 and 2023. Without well-designed facilities or any staff to provide assistance, it makes it difficult for disabled people to use financial services.
- Telephone and online services. Closures often mean that branch-based financial services are replaced by phone and online banking. But accessibility remains a challenge here too. The financial wellbeing report produced by Bristol University and RiDC found that 44% of respondents said it was “difficult or confusing to deal with financial services customer service staff on the phone”, a figure that rises to:
- 68% among those with a behaviour-related impairment
- 60% among those with a communication-related impairment
- 59% with a hearing-related impairment
Ultimately, these accessibility challenges can make carrying out basic money management tasks – such as paying bills or building up savings – difficult. It often involves asking others for help, preparing extensive workarounds to suit, and feeling confused or ripped off. At its worst, a lack of accessibility can result in complete financial exclusion.
Current trends and successful initiatives
When all financial services, including credit cards, are designed inclusively, the benefits extend far beyond individual users – with an impact on businesses, economies and societies. So, designing products and services with inclusivity in mind isn’t just the right thing to do, but it has great potential for a wider impact too.
There has been some great innovation moving the credit card industry forwards to a more accessible future. Successful initiatives include:
Card designs
One great example of inclusive card design is Mastercard’s Touch Card™ with unique, tactile notches to help people distinguish between a credit, debit or prepaid card. By touch alone, it’s possible to recognise the card you need. It’s become the accessible card standard for blind and partially sighted people and many card providers now feature similar designs.
Customer service and support
A good place to start any journey towards greater accessibility is by listening to disabled people and their needs. In another example, Experian has collaborated with consumers, firms and charities to develop Support Hub. It’s a free service where people can share their support requirements with multiple organisations (financial services, water and energy companies, and retail credit) in one place. They provide the following examples of support needs:
- Letters in larger print
- Video calls in British Sign Language
- Reasonable adjustments to bills from an energy company
You can find out more about Support Hub and all participating organisations, including HSBC UK, Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Bank and John Lewis Partnership Credit Card. Other banks have their own services which allow you to inform them of any needs, such as NatWest’s Banking My Way.
Accessible digital platforms
Listening to support needs is one way of making any interactions more accessible. For example, you can express a preference that you need to see someone’s face when they speak if it helps.
While digital platforms cannot be completely personalised in this way, they need to provide accessibility options. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are the standard to follow. And there is some great progress:
- Banking apps and websites are increasingly compatible with screen reader integration, such as iOS VoiceOver or Android TalkBack
- Touch ID and facial recognition means users can log on without having to remember and input a complicated password
- Alternative versions of information, such as transcriptions and audio-visual description of videos, is more commonplace online
- Accessible design, which includes larger font sizes and better contrast, is being prioritised to make online banking more user-friendly for all
- Technical elements, such as being able to control a page without a mouse, are increasingly available
Many improvements to online and digital platforms don’t just benefit people with disabilities, but people who lack digital skills too.
In-person interactions
It’s easy to assume with all the bank closures that little investment is being made into branches, but that isn’t the case. In fact, Nationwide - the UK’s largest branch network - rolled out Speak Easy in September 2024. It’s a dedicated service for those with communication difficulties to use custom-made sets of printed cards with phrases and pictures to “aid their interactions with colleagues in branch on a range of banking matters, including savings and payments, reporting a lost or stolen card and raising a suspected fraud or scam”.
There's progress from other banks and providers too. This includes Lloyds being the first UK bank to open a registered Changing Places toilet facility, available to both colleagues and the public. These are large accessible toilets with extra support features, such as grab rails.
FinTech innovation
Based on her own experience of caring for her parents, both of whom have dementia, Jayne Sibley co-founded Sibstar – a mobile app designed to give control to a caregiver but also independence to an account holder. Cards can be loaded with money, but notifications and the option to freeze and unfreeze sits with a caregiver. It can help prevent vulnerable people from falling victim to scams or potentially overspending - a notable example of a FinTech fulfilling an unmet need in the financial sector.
The future of accessibility
In order for everyone to participate equally in financial services, accessibility should be a priority. When services and products are made with inclusivity in mind, they’re opened up to everyone to use without experiencing frustration, confusion or unnecessary costs.
Banks and credit providers who do this best share some common themes: they ask and assess how everyone can access their service; they continually review how well this is working; and they listen to the needs of disabled and vulnerable people. The idea is that no one is left behind.
In another example of progress, EY and UK Finance have created a series of forums to explore the accessibility barriers and focus on improving accessibility within the sector. The forum involves representatives from the financial services sector, including the big banks and emerging FinTechs, as well as representatives from five charities to understand lived experiences:
- Royal National Institute of Blind People
- Royal National Institute for Deaf People
- Whizz-Kidz
- Money and Mental Health Policy Institute
- The Business Disability Forum
To drive change, six key themes which really capture the necessary elements of accessibility were identified:
- Dialogue builds success. When people can better recognise what life is like for people with disabilities, they gain an understanding of how challenging it can be but are also able to identify where improvements can be made.
- Design for inclusion first. No bank is trying to deliberately exclude people, but often people with disabilities or accessibility experts aren’t consulted during the design phase. Stress testing of accessibility solutions should be included as standard during design and development, not added on as an afterthought.
- Innovation enables independence. New technologies can be harnessed to make resources more inclusive and help users maintain their independence. For example, QR codes linking to BSL videos can ensure that people with hearing impairments can access the same information, rather than a shortened version.
- Customer-centric channels are key. Businesses should make sure that they’re providing training for their employees and putting systems in place to help customers with disabilities get the customer service they need. Customers should be able to speak to someone who can help them quickly and efficiently.
- Raising awareness empowers people to make informed choices. Banks and businesses should make it easier for customers to choose their preferred format or accessibility options from the outset, rather than having to ask for help every time. This increases the number of actions customers can take themselves, reducing their need to rely on others. These options should be clearly marketed so that people with disabilities are able to consider them when choosing the most suitable provider.
- Being ‘accessible’ is not a fixed state. There is not a ‘one size fits all’ approach to accessibility, and new technologies are evolving all the time. Financial service providers should not consider accessibility a ticked box; rather it should be something they are constantly seeking to improve and monitor.
By focusing on these, there are opportunities to build further on the progress made so far and make differences which can have a meaningful impact on everyday money management.
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The Editorial Team - Compare the Market
Experts in personal finance, insurance and utilities
Compare the Market’s Editorial Team is made up of industry experts with decades of experience in personal finance, insurance and utilities. Each of our authors has an area of expertise, where they can share their extensive experience to help you get a better deal, by finding the right product and saving money.