User research is vital for improving digital accessibility

With about one in six people worldwide estimated to have a significant disability¹, digital accessibility is a major consideration for global banks.

At HSBC, all our digital releases – such as new banking apps, websites or functionality – undergo an audit to ensure they comply with international accessibility standards. But meeting these standards is only one piece of the puzzle. We want our products and services to be accessible in practice as well as theory – and that’s where user research is so vital.

By working with users with a range of disabilities, we can identify many more accessibility issues than through an audit alone. This results in richer, more comprehensive insights and gives us a better understanding of how people interact with our products in a live context.

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Dr Chris Bailey, Senior Accessibility Manager, HSBC

Tackling difficult questions

User research can also address questions that the accessibility guidelines don’t cover. For example, we recently enlisted some participants for a study into the chatbot functionality on our banking apps, to investigate whether we could reduce the response time without compromising accessibility.

We found that the chatbot's response time could indeed be shortened without affecting the experience of users with disabilities, and the participants also identified some other, more significant, accessibility issues. This helped us understand what really mattered to customers.

Another key advantage of user research is that, unlike a full accessibility audit, it can be carried out in the early stages of designing and creating a product. This means that any concerns can be spotted and rectified sooner, saving considerable time and money.

We saw this during an extensive project to upgrade all our cash machines in the UK. By conducting accessibility user research on a non-functional prototype, we quickly established that the screen was too high for some wheelchair users. Our product team was able to resolve this before building the new machines for real.

Accessibility by design

There isn’t always a clear-cut solution to the issues raised during accessibility user testing. Sometimes one participant will highlight something that, if it were to be adjusted, would only create new problems for people with a different disability. Regardless, we gain valuable insight that helps build a picture of how our customers want and expect to use our products. This informs how our products will evolve over time.

Our accessibility user research programme launched four years ago and we are still developing its capabilities. In time, we aim to introduce it into more markets and integrate it into our design processes at an earlier stage. It’s another step on our journey to becoming the world’s most digitally accessible bank.

¹ According to the World Health Organization