Newcastle Building Society has collaborated with assistive technology firm, Recite Me, to add accessibility and language tools to its website.

The society is aiming to support customers to access content more easily, as well as helping those with visual impairments, disabilities and whose first language is not English.

According to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), 9.8 million people in England live with a disability, and can often face barriers that prevent them from taking an active part in life.

Newcastle has made diversity and inclusion one of its five strategic priorities and the roll-out of Recite Me’s accessibility support technology on its website comes as part of this commitment, as well as reflecting the society’s wider purpose to connect its communities with a better financial future.

Head of equality, diversity and inclusion at Newcastle Building Society, Jennie Pitt, commented: “We’re committed to making it easy for all of our customers to interact with us in the way they choose.

“That’s why, as well as continuing to invest in and grow our branch network to ensure our communities maintain access to face-to-face financial services, we’re making it simpler for members to manage their personal finances online, by making our website accessible to everyone.”

The introduction of the Recite Me tool is also in support of the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) newly introduced guidelines to create a higher standard of consumer protection. The Recite Me tools allow users to access the screen reading functionality, multiple reading aids, customisable styling options and an on-demand live translation feature capable of interpreting over 100 languages, including text-to-speech.

“Recite Me’s accessibility software provides the ideal platform for us to uphold our commitment to delivering a website that everybody can easily use and enables us to offer a customisable experience for our website visitors and members in a way that meets their individual needs,” Pitt added.

“Ensuring that as many people as possible are able to access our website and obtain the information they need, or carry out the tasks they require, is important for our society in enabling us to deliver high levels of customer service, and an inclusive experience for our members.”

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