Scotiabank's Accessible Canada Act (ACA) Accessibility Plan 2023-2026

In 2022, Scotiabank led three unique research studies working with people with disabilities to understand their banking preferences, barriers, and needs. We also launched a Canada-wide survey with over 500 respondents, we facilitated a focus group, and we led a co-design workshop study. Each of these studies helped uncover barriers across all priority areas in the Accessible Canada Act. 

In 2022, Scotiabank consulted with some people who are Deaf, deafened or hard of hearing to understand their communication barriers and needs in banking. 

In 2022, Scotiabank led a co-design study with some people who identified as low vision or blind to understand communication barriers and opportunities for alternate formats and bank cards. 

In 2022, Scotiabank led a focus group study to understand website accessibility barriers on Scotiabank.com and how we can remove them. 

In 2022, Scotiabank consulted with the Alliance for the Equality of Blind Canadians to better understand barriers that people with low vision and blindness experience with banking.

Scotiabank started a formal partnership with D(if) Labs, a disability consulting firm, in 2021. Through the partnership, we learn about accessibility barriers through D(if) Labs’ quarterly research studies and stakeholder roundtables.  

In 2021-2022, Scotiabank consulted with CAN-age, a national seniors advocacy organization, and the Alzheimer’s Society, a national health charity, to improve financial inclusion for people with dementia.

In 2023, Scotiabank employees who identified as a person with a disability were invited to participate in an internal panel.  The panel’s focus is on creating and working on the Accessibility Plan and progress reports. Over 400 employees with disabilities are participants in the panel.

In 2022-2023, Scotiabank’s accessibility team led workshops with Scotiabank employees to identify accessibility barriers in banking and employment across the 7 priority areas of the Accessible Canada Act.

Scotiabank conducted an Employment System Review in 2020. It involved an investigation of gaps and barriers to inclusion for equity-deserving groups, including persons with disabilities. This included a comprehensive and systematic review of human resources policies, processes, and systems, a highly consultative interview process with key decision makers, and a survey of employees who self-identified as having a disability. The result of the Employment System Review informed the bank’s Employment Equity Plan and has also helped inform the development of this Accessibility Plan.

In 2023, the public, Scotiabank customers, employees, and disability organizations across Canada were invited to participate in an online or telephone survey. Over 250 customers, employees with disabilities, and members of the public completed the Accessibility Plan consultation survey.

Some survey respondents who shared interest in contributing further participated in a virtual or telephone consultation interview with Scotiabank’s accessibility team.  

• Financial institutions should design with people with cognitive disabilities in mind in order to improve the accessibility of financial services and products. Aim to:
  
  o   Prevent fraud and exploitation
  
  o   Offer structured and personalized supports
  
  o   Include people with cognitive disabilities in the design of products and services

• Financial institutions should improve the employee and customer accommodation experience by:
  
  o   Improving the availability of accessibility accommodations
  
  o   Making existing accommodation processes easier

• Financial institutions should improve training for employees and customers by:
  
  o   Strengthening employee training on how to support people with disabilities and how to manage accommodation requests
  
  o   Increasing digital financial literacy training for customers using mobile and online banking

• Financial institutions should improve the accessibility of website and mobile applications 

Scotiabank is committed to being an employer of choice by driving a proactive, sustainable culture of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

This means making sure that employees with disabilities are respected for who they are, that employees can reach their full potential, and that employees with disabilities can access Scotiabank’s services in a manner that respects dignity and independence. We do this through strategic initiatives that look to remove barriers and increase inclusion and equitable representation of employees with disabilities at all levels and areas of the organization.

The Bank is beginning a new chapter in our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion  journey. The multi-year enterprise-wide strategy maps goals and initiatives for advancing diversity, equity and inclusion. We aim to increase the diversity of our employee population by 2025, with a focus on Black people, Indigenous Peoples, LGBT+ people, People of Colour, People with Disabilities, and women. The strategy includes increasing the representation of People with Disabilities 20 percent by 2025.

The Employment Systems Review and Accessible Canada Act consultations identified barriers and opportunities to advance the inclusion of people with disabilities in employment, including:

• Expanding talent attraction partnerships.
  
  
• Meeting the needs of people with disabilities by enhancing recruitment and accommodation processes.
  
  
• Educating employees on requesting and implementing an accommodation.
  
  
• Advancing supports for mental health.
  
  
• Making technology accessible by design.
  

Removing barriers to employment involves:

• Building a foundation of inclusion and accessibility by incorporating inclusive language, reducing knowledge gaps, and reducing stigma associated with requesting accommodation.
  
  
• Addressing the unique challenges of mental health through more awareness and better practices and processes.
  
  
• Boosting a strong talent attraction and retention strategy to advance representation of employees with disabilities at all job levels, including leadership, and meeting or doing better than labour market availability.
  
  
• Ensuring that people with disabilities are shown in internal and external graphics and communications.
  
  
• Better accommodation processes, ensuring the work environment is inclusive and accessible.

Scotiabank is committed to providing accessible spaces for customers and employees. We achieve this by following Canadian legislation and building codes. Scotiabank complies with accessibility laws and regulations when building or making major changes to public spaces. If a service disruption happens, we notify the public of the service disruption and available alternatives.

• Navigating banks can sometimes be difficult for persons with disabilities due to sometimes limited space for mobility devices and limited tactile or audio directional cues.
  
  
• Bank spaces may not be designed for those with sensory processing disabilities.

Digital banking allows us to meet our customers and employees -- of all abilities and backgrounds -- wherever they are. It lets our customers choose how and when to interact with the bank. We work from a customer-centred perspective and put accessibility at the heart of each process – from concept to code. We seek to truly understand the problems we are trying to solve, and then we work to understand if we are making a difference by measuring our solutions. We are always course correcting, evolving with our customers, and creating ethical, sustainable, accessible and inclusive solutions.

Digital accessibility is not new to the bank, and we develop digital accessibility capabilities across the enterprise and push the boundaries of making our digital banking experiences accessible. To achieve this, we have:

• Worked accessibility into our design and engineering practice so that our websites and mobile apps are built (and verified) with accessibility at the forefront, thereby making accessibility part of the Definition of Done for customer-facing digital experiences.  
  
  
• Engineered accessibility into the core of our global design system, Canvas. Accessibility is part of the brand, visual design, and code, and is tested with assistive technology. All new components added to Canvas are tested for accessibility and conform with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
  
  
• Put together a Digital Accessibility Team with deep expertise on digital accessibility standards and best practices. The team develops and implements standards, tools and training, and provides accessibility advice to teams on how to build accessible technology that customers and employees with disabilities can use.
  
  
• Established the Global Wealth accessibility program to make sure focussed and customized efforts are made to achieve digital accessibility goals across the Global Wealth business lines. The program has three workstreams – one for websites, one for web content (like PDFs and media files), and one to support ongoing sustainment of accessibility in digital customer experiences. Through the program, we are updating more than 25 web properties across more than 8 business units to follow WCAG for websites and web content.
  
  
• Brought in an option for customers to provide accessibility feedback in an online survey.

• Some persons with disabilities believe that limited information is available for customers on how to accessibly use online or mobile banking applications.
  
  
• Accessibility is inconsistent. Some barriers with websites, mobile applications, electronic documents, telecommunications, software and hardware still exist for both customers and employees.

At Scotiabank we believe that everyone should receive efficient, accessible and equal access to barrier-free information. We strive to ensure that Scotiabank information and communications are accessible by all.

• People who are Deaf, deafened, or hard of hearing sometimes experience barriers communicating with employees at banks due to sometimes limited communication services and tools, and service design gaps.
  
  
• Banking documents and statements are not always accessible and access to alternate formats of documents can sometimes be difficult.
  
  
• Banking information is hard to understand. Information that is available often does not consider different learning needs or the needs of people with cognitive disabilities.

Financial services play an important role in enabling a better future. We advance social, environmental and economic progress by serving the needs of our customers and employees. We offer products, services and advice that create opportunity and economic advancement. We promote economic inclusion, accessibility and financial literacy across our footprint. And we offer sustainable solutions that drive economic growth while upholding environmental protection.

• Customer-facing employees at financial institutions sometimes do not have enough training on how to accommodate and adapt service delivery for the unique needs of customers with disabilities.
  
  
• Customers and employees with disabilities are not always engaged in the planning, design and delivery of new programs, services, and technologies at financial institutions.
  
  
• There may not be enough employee awareness about accessibility programs, technologies, and services that are available for customers and employees.

Accessibility is about enabling everyone to fully participate in society without barriers. Accessible procurement applies to all sourcing, from routine purchases to using a contract for multi-year projects. Accessibility focuses on end users, and how they will interact with the goods, services, and facilities that we procure. This isn’t a one-size fits all approach. There is no one answer that will fit everything we buy.  We consider accessibility by identifying the barriers faced by the people who use our products and services.

• Suppliers sometimes are not aware of accessibility requirements and regulations.
  
  
• Improved processes, procedures, and checkpoints to evaluate accessibility requirements in the procurement process are required.

* These dates are estimates and actual completion dates may vary.

Scotiabank does not provide public transportation and has not identified barriers under this focus area of the Accessible Canada Act.