USAA’s new banking app allows voice-guided cheque depositing

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Monday, 18 July 2016 16:29pm

USAA, a Texas-based Fortune 500 diversified financial services group, has recently demonstrated that banking and accessibility can easily go hand in hand with each other. This was proved in a recent update to their banking app which will mean that individuals who are blind or have a vision impairment will hear the benefits – literally.

USAA logo

This system offers verbal cues to guide a vision impaired customer to be able to properly position a cheque to deposit it. They use commands like ‘push out’, ‘pull in’, ‘move right’, ‘lift device’, ‘hold steady’, ‘image captured’, and more.

USAA is specifically focussed on targeting and serving millions of military members and their families. Therefore this new system can impact a large portion of customers and aligns with the organisation’s ethos. It is a first in the marketplace and they have applied for the patent for this new feature, yet they have stated that they have no idea of the quantity of lives this could positively impact.

Prianka Advani, USAA Bank Assistant Vice Presidentsaid to The Houston Chronicle that “It's not about the quantity, it's all about helping the members. We never add a service for X number of members. X doesn't matter." 

In order to activate voice-guidance, the smartphone or tablet must have its screen reader activated. Learn more about a mobile device’s accessibility features.

This app update is a great improvement for the world of banking and accessibility. Banking in the past hasn’t got the best reputation for accessibility, especially in Australia (read a past review of Australian bank’s web accessibility).

However, a few have done it right in the past few years:

Read an interview of Skandia Bank’s accessibility journey.

Read about what Lloyd’s Banking Group are doing to implement web accessibility

Banking and being able to access one’s money in a safe, secure, and easy way is a right and this new development is another step in the right direction.


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