Opening up banking

Lloyds Bank chose the International Day for People with Disabilities to launch its collaboration with Signly to offer British Sign Language (BSL) website translation: an important step in removing barriers faced by deaf customers. It is the first UK organisation to offer such a service.

Signly recently attended the Science Park’s Catalyst business accelerator programme and continues to go from strength to strength, already winning multiple awards for its ground-breaking technology.

Signly provides BSL translations of online content via a browser extension directly to the user’s device. BSL is the first language for many deaf people but, with its unique grammar and syntax, many are excluded from accessing important written material.

At Lloyds, it is hoped that providing Signly’s online BSL videos will open-up access to banking for deaf people and those with hearing impairments, giving them the ability to make informed financial decisions. The signed videos are pre-recorded to cover the most popular Lloyds Bank webpages including information on products and services and online banking. If a page has not been translated, users can request it. The service is provided free of charge.

David Oldfield, Executive Sponsor for Disability at Lloyds said: “We’re always thinking of innovative ways to help our customers bank with us in ways that suit them. The new Signly features are a fantastic example of using technology to boost accessibility to financial services and opening doors for customers with hearing impediments to access the information many of us take for granted.”

Find out more here.