For immediate release
Barclays wins Business Disability Forum’s Accessible Technology award
London, UK – Barclays PLC has won Business Disability Forum’s Accessible Technology award as part of the Disability Standard 2011/12, which scores organisations’ performance on disability across the whole business from their products and services to recruitment and facilities. Barclays has excelled in their commitment and proactive approach to removing technological obstacles for disabled customers and employees.
Joanna Wootten, Director of Information and Advice and Disability Standard lead at Business Disability Forum, says:
“We awarded Barclays our Accessible Technology award for their ‘Enable design standards’, a framework which ensures that inclusion and accessibility are built in at all design, development and implementation stages of new projects; it sets the bank apart from other businesses. We saw evidence of the effectiveness of this framework when they developed ‘Ping-it’ which works on several levels for many people with different impairments, e.g.those who can’t travel to bank to pay in money or can’t speak on phone – they designed it to be as accessible and usable as possible.”
“Barclays continues to outperform the wider business community with regards to customer service and technology. One of the reasons Barclays won our Accessible Technology award is that they have committed to a programme of upgrading their ATMs to include the headphone facility which will enable visually impaired people to use the machines, the programme is due to be completed by the end of 2012. Barclays were the first bank to commit to accessible ATMs, setting a new standard for disability smart banking.”
Mark Q McLane, Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion at Barclays, says:
“Barclays is proud to be recognised as one of the top organisations of choice by Business Disability Forum which is a clear testament to the on-going work we undertake to progress the disability agenda more widely both within our organisation and in the communities that we serve.Participating in the Disability Standard helps us review and continually assess the progress we have made while identifying what more can be done.”
Notes to editors:
- Business Disability Forum is the new name for Employers’ Forum on Disability. For more information visit:
- More information on the Disability Standard and details of the other award categories, their winners and a top ten ranking are available here:
- Barclaysranked joint second in the Disability Standard 2011/12 overall.
- Howell James CBE, Vice Chairman, Corporate Affairs,is a member of Business Disability Forum’s Presidents’ Group.
Media enquiries please contact:
Brenda Otema, Communications & Marketing Officer
Business Disability Forum
Email:
Telephone: 020 7089 2474