6 June 2007

More banks in the US are seeking to make their online banking facilities more accessible following a mandate enforced in January this year.

According to Bank Technology News, the majority of banking institutions have complied with the mandate from the Federal Financial Institution Examinations Council and have focused on making services easier to use by the blind and partially-sighted.

A number of users have expressed their frustration with having to type out letters that have been scrambled by the bank in order to ensure user authenticity - known as CAPTCHAs - because they cannot be scanned by screen reading software.

"People are concerned because the visual CAPTCHAs are completely inaccessible," disability rights lawyer Lainey Feingold commented.

This may have implications for banks in the UK, where more than a third of adults regularly use online banking services, according to a recent study by Nationwide Building Society.

© Adfero Ltd

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