TORONTO, June 6, 2023 /CNW/ - On June 1, Scotiabank released its inaugural Accessible Canada Act Accessibility Plan, which outlines the Bank's commitment to identifying, preventing, and removing barriers for persons with disabilities.

To develop its 2023-2026 Accessibility Plan, Scotiabank approached its customers, employees, and the public to get their feedback on improvements Scotiabank could make to become a more accessible and inclusive bank to persons with disabilities. 

"Scotiabank remains committed to learning from our customers and identifying new capabilities to ensure an accessible banking experience for all," said Shawn Rose, Scotiabank's Chief Technology Officer and Executive Champion of the Bank's DiversAbility Employee Resource Group. "As part of the work of our design and engineering teams, we aim to ensure that our websites and mobile apps are built with accessibility at the forefront and are continually evaluated to improve the accessibility of our products, for every future."

Scotiabank strives to ensure that all of its customers are able to access barrier free banking with dignity and independence. Over the last few years, the Bank has invested in developing improved capabilities, including:

• Engineered accessibility into the core of the Bank's global design system. Accessibility is part of the brand, visual design, and code, and is tested with assistive technology. All new components added to the system are tested for accessibility and conform with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
  
  
• Established the Enterprise Accessibility Centre of Excellence in 2020, that embraces, embodies, and champions the need for accessible and inclusive practices that treat Scotiabank customers and colleagues with the respect and dignity they deserve. The Bank aims to achieve this by fostering a culture of inclusion through informed strategy, scalable processes, and distributed accountability that puts people with disabilities at the centre: "nothing about us without us."
  
  
• Established the Global Wealth Management accessibility program to ensure focused and customized efforts are made to achieve digital accessibility goals across the Global Wealth Management business lines. The program has three workstreams: (1) websites, (2) web content, and (3) to support ongoing sustainment of accessibility in digital customer experiences. Through the program, the Bank is updating more than 25 web properties across more than eight business units to follow WCAG for websites and web content.

In addition to releasing its Accessibility Plan, Scotiabank recently launched a redesigned Accessibility site: www.scotiabank.com/accessibility. The public is encouraged to visit the site to learn more about the accessibility features offered through its banking channels, and how Scotiabank's accessibility team designs and builds for inclusivity. 

Scotiabank is committed to meeting the needs of their customers and employees with a range of sight, mobility, hearing, and cognitive abilities and providing banking that is easy, accessible, and inclusive. Through a broad suite of digital banking tools, each customer is empowered to control how and when they bank, regardless of their ability, context, or situation. To support ongoing progress, Scotiabank will continue to consult with persons with disabilities to learn from and improve the overall banking experience. Customers, shareholders and community members are invited to review the Plan and provide feedback through the Scotiabank's Accessibility Feedback Process.

Scotiabank is committed to providing an inclusive workplace. This means fostering an environment where employees with disabilities are respected for who they are and can reach their full potential. Scotiabank is working to achieve this through strategic initiatives that not only look to remove barriers but increase inclusion, and equitable representation of People with Disabilities at all levels and areas of the organization. The strategy includes increasing the representation of People with Disabilities (PWD) by 20 per cent over by 2025.

Scotiabank is a leading bank in the Americas. Guided by our purpose: "for every future", we help our customers, their families and their communities achieve success through a broad range of advice, products and services, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and investment banking, and capital markets. With a team of over 90,000 employees and assets of over $1.3 trillion (as at April 30, 2023), Scotiabank trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: BNS) and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BNS). For more information, please visit http://www.scotiabank.com and follow us on Twitter @Scotiabank.

SOURCE Scotiabank