Dark mode, larger fonts and bionic reading are adjustments that can help people with varying needs or disabilities more comfortably peruse the web. TD Bank Group is piloting a tool for retail employees — and eventually customers — to set such preferences in their browsers.
Adapted Accessibility, which the Toronto, Canada-based $1.9 trillion-asset bank developed in its innovation group TD Lab, will function as a browser plug-in for Google Chrome. It will be optimized for Odyssey, the retail web platform that bankers use in TD branches to open accounts, view transaction data and more, but the settings people choose will carry over onto all Chrome webpages. It will be piloted across 6,000 frontline retail employees at TD Bank branches in the U.S. The pilot will expand to nearly 10,000 U.S. employees by the end of 2023.
Simultaneously, business disability inclusion nonprofit Disability:IN is conducting its own pilot in collaboration with TD, with its own staff and select committees, to ensure the tool is ready for a wider market.
The beauty of accessibility features is that they help people beyond the populations they were explicitly designed to support. The ability to reduce blue light exposure or fiddle with fonts can also help someone with an undiagnosed disability, or those who have a headache or tired eyes from a long day in front of a computer screen. Financial institutions have been adopting a variety of measures to support both
"We're looking at how we give autonomy back to someone who had to go through a lengthy accommodation process before to explain their needs," said Samantha Estoesta, a product manager at TD.
An audit found most of the biggest banks and largest community banks fail to meet basic Americans with Disabilities Act rules for website and app readability. U.S. Bank does more than most to make digital channels accessible.
The expertise for building this tool came from within.
"It wasn't built for this community without their involvement," said Estoesta. "Some of the people working on this, including myself, have disabilities."
TD highlighted Adapted Accessibility during its annual Tech Day, when the bank showcases its innovations. It also announced another accessibility feature: Customers in Canada who are deaf can call a dedicated phone line using their Video Relay Services application with their American Sign Language (ASL) or Langue des signes Québécoise (LSQ) interpreter and interact with a specially trained agent. In 2021, TD announced that it would cover the costs for blind and low-vision individuals using Aira, a visual interpreting service and app, in all of its U.S. branches, ATMs, at TD-sponsored events and when banking online.
With the Adapted Accessibility browser plug-in, users can explore preset profiles for people with low vision, epilepsy, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, limited dexterity or other disabilities, as well as general categories for comprehension, perception and the browsing experience. Within these categories are preset or suggested features such as reading guides (which help users focus on text), adjustable font size, dark mode, dyslexia-friendly fonts, bionic reading (which bolds certain letters in words to make text easier to read) and monochrome mode. Users can choose profiles or customize a mix of features according to their preferences, even saving multiple profiles that they can switch between at various times of day.
"We talk about accessibility, but these are also digital viewing preferences," said Estoesta. "Quite a few people I know are excited about dark mode."
The bank also stressed that these preferences will co-exist with other assistive technologies, such as standalone screen magnification software.
Marsha Schwanke, a specialist at the Southeast ADA Center, which provides technical guidance on the Americans with Disabilities Act, says this capability will be key. People with disabilities will already be using such technologies and it's important for TD's offerings to not conflict or override what people already have.
"You don't want to duplicate the wheel," she said. Although options are good, "you can have too many choices and overwhelm people."
These options can be especially useful for people with a newly acquired disability, who have not disclosed a disability or are beginning to lose their vision, she pointed out.
"It levels the playing field," she said. "User needs can rapidly change."
Eventually, the technology will be available to TD customers, said Estoesta, but the roadmap has not yet been nailed down.
