And you really can't see the problem?

[roserodent]

I  spoke to my bank today about a website access problem, and they told me the only way to sort out the issue was to be called on a landline phone (don't have one) by an automated service. I told them this is a problem for anyone who is Deaf and would they at least do it for me in the branch. No. They will know my access number, that is not secure. But it's all ok as there's a special feature for deaf callers... At the end of the call it asks you to press 1 if you didn't hear it and it will ask you again.

The mind positively boggles!

I told her best case scenario a phone call goes "flub flub flubbety  flub wub" and worst case it goes "[tumbleweed]" and this was genuinely surprising to her.

This is a variant of the tax office which has an AUDIO message on their text phone line saying press 1 if you are deaf...  

Comments

[jadelennox]

Aaaaargh!

I don't know what it's like in the UK (you're in the UK, I think?), but in the US, the National Associaton of the Deaf and the National Federation of the Blind just love suing large institutions and chains.

This is different from the frivolous accessibility lawsuits where troll lawyers hurt us all by sending demands for cash to small business. These are attempts to set precedent and scare businesses into following the law by suing Harvard and MIT and Target and Amazon for not having captions or accessible website controls, etc.

Also,

At the end of the call it asks you to press 1 if you didn't hear it and it will ask you again.

I would say I'm shocked but nothing can shock me with web design anymore. :(

[alexseanchai]

...wow.

[tig_b]

It is difficult to enforce UK disability law, but if you can get one of the big charities and a national newspaper to take it up it can be done.

The fact that the law is so hard to enforce is a scandal that no one in government wants to hear or take action about.

[jesse_the_k]

Wow. That is the highest level of suckiness yet!

...they can't do it in the branch F2F? What the hell are branches for, then?

[lilacsigil]

If it's the same as Australia, they're phasing out a lot of branch services. This is a problem for me as I can't use my bank's website due to unblockable sliding images which are a vertigo trigger - I can use the mobile site, but it doesn't have all the features. So then it's off to the branch and oh, they can't do X, it's only online!

[vass]

I suspect we have the same bank. They're not a vertigo trigger for me, but they are a sensory integration disorder trigger and make using their site stressful at best and distressing and threatening at worst. (And then there is Woolworths, whose online supermarket is ENTIRELY unusable for me.)

Fuckers.

Unasked advice follows, skip at will:

There's a pause button on the sliding images, but you'd need to be able to tolerate the sliding images for long enough to find it, and it doesn't persist between sessions.

Obviously it is Not Okay for you to need to find someone else who can pause the sliding images just so you can access your bank account. But if it's that or go to the branch and then they don't help you there, maybe that's an option (a shitty one, but still) for you?

[lilacsigil]

Actually this is very helpful! Now that I know there's something I can ask for help with, I can get someone to help.

[amadi]

Could the "block this image" feature of Adblock or disallowing the scripting in console or with NoScript or some combination thereof nuke the sliding images thing for you, if someone else sat at the browser to do it for you, maybe?

[lilacsigil]

I use Adblock, NoScript, Flashblock and turning off animations in Firefox, which works for me most of the time. Unfortunately, on this one site, it won't work at all with NoScript, and the rest don't block it.

[amadi]

Damn, I'm sorry. That's some persistent scripting for a slideshow. :(

[davidgillon]

Oh, *headdesk* *headdesk* *headdesk*.

So if you press 1 at the end, does it do it again but SHOUT LOUDER?

[pauamma]

...

[vass]

*shakes head sadly* I cannot even.

[amadi]

I'm reminded of ATMs that had braille on the buttons, but no audio descriptions to tell you where the buttons were or what the screen was saying, and now have a headphone jack to enable audio narration but no audio description to tell you that there's a headphone jack or where on the machine to find it.

[yarram]

<snark>
Of course they don't SEE the problem, because they're so fucking audist they won't even listen to HEAR that there's a problem.
</snark>

[untonuggan]

*facepalm*