Digital Accessibility Principles

We know there is a lot we must do to ensure the digital experiences we design and build for our members and our colleagues are accessible and inclusive to all. To do this, we must help everyone at Nationwide understand their responsibilities and how to get it right.

To support this standard, we created the following digital accessibility principles to help develop a mindset that puts accessibility and inclusion at the forefront of everything we do.

Accept responsibility 

We accept responsibility for the experiences we create, ensuring they are inclusive and accessible to all.  We design and build great products and services that meet the needs of our members and colleagues no matter their situation, ability or circumstance. 

Key actions 

• Understand the importance of digital accessibility, what it is and who benefits from it. 
• Understand our legal obligations under the Equality Act 2010 (Disability Discrimination Act 1995 in Northern Ireland) and our moral responsibilities of “doing the right thing” to help reduce financial and reputational risk. 
• Recognise the commercial opportunities that doing accessibility well brings to Nationwide, enabling us to reach more customers by establishing strong brand loyalty and a positive brand reputation. 
• Understand the role of Nationwide’s Accessibility Governance forum in monitoring and reporting the accessibility of Nationwide’s products and services. 
• Recognise and encourage Nationwide’s standards for accessibility and inclusion. 
• Understand Nationwide’s accessibility goals and inspire others to work collaboratively towards them. 
• Foster a culture of shared accountability by ensuring everyone understands individual and collective responsibilities for accessibility, so that accessibility best practices can be integrated into everyday work. 

Consider from the start 

Collectively, we consider accessibility from the start when we are developing new products and services or enhancing existing features. This enables us to solve design challenges earlier when it is more time and cost-efficient to do so. We integrate accessibility throughout our design, build and test processes, ensuring it is done in a way that is sustainable. 

Key actions 

• Ensure appropriate accessibility awareness training is undertaken along with specific accessibility training for team members involved in the production of digital products and services. 
• Understand the role of Nationwide’s Accessibility team in supporting teams to do accessibility well and engage with them early so they can provide guidance throughout a project. 
• Understand and encourage the role of Nationwide accessibility champions, ensuring champions are well established in a team to promote and support accessibility best practices. 
• Understand the role of Nationwide’s accessibility partner, the Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC) in assessing products and services against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Engage early with DAC so they can provide regular assessments throughout a project. 
• Guarantee that accessibility requirements are included in contract negotiations for suppliers (resources and products / services). 
• Determine when procuring new products or services if they meet Nationwide’s Accessibility Standard and promote accessibility best practices.  
• Retain responsibility for ensuring products, services, frameworks, or resources provided by suppliers and sub-contractors meet the Nationwide Accessibility Standard. 
• Ensure people with disabilities are included in user research to ensure that we learn from diversity to produce the right products and services for our members. 
• Establish an implementation plan which determines how accessibility will be achieved and measured in the product or service, as accessibility does not happen by accident. 
• Establish a comprehensive testing plan for the product or service by using automated and manual accessibility testing techniques and including people with disabilities in user testing. 
• Establish a strategy for maintaining the accessibility of the product or service when updates are required or during maintenance and release cycles. 

Learn from diversity 

We keep aware of our biases and gather different perspectives to proceed with true insight. We involve a diverse range of people, including – but not limited to – those with disabilities, in our research to ensure our products and services meet and exceed the varying needs of members and colleagues. 

Key actions 

• Create a diverse workforce by employing people with disabilities and develop a culture of inclusion where different perspectives and different needs are always considered. 
• Understand how people with disabilities use digital products and services by being aware of their environment and emotional well-being, as well as the devices and software they may use. 
• Integrate older people and those with different types of disabilities (cognitive, visual, mobility, auditory, and speech) into user research to understand their experiences, achievements and frustrations. 

Reach beyond recognised standards 

We design using global accessibility standards as our foundation. We use common components and patterns but strive to go above and beyond guidelines using insight from research where possible for the benefit of our members and colleagues. 

Key actions 

• Aim beyond compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA and focus on providing great experiences that enable everyone to do what they want easily and efficiently with confidence and control.  
• Champion the use of common components and patterns such as NEL to achieve consistently high standards of accessibility across channels and journeys. 
• Analyse services from end-to-end, ensuring that where digital journeys and channels meet with non-digital touchpoints, the non-digital elements of the service are accessible and do not create barriers for people with disabilities. 

Better, not perfect 

We strive to make things better for everyone, but we know this will take time. We understand our stakeholders and consider any financial or technical constraints to make sure accessibility remains a priority. We learn from our successes and shortfalls, constantly building on our knowledge to improve the accessibility of our services. 

Key actions 

• Champion higher standards of accessibility awareness and commitment from colleagues and suppliers, ensuring they have the necessary support to do accessibility well. 
• Learn from business areas that are doing accessibility well to understand how accessibility best practices can be seamlessly integrated into delivery processes. 
• Contribute to our accessibility standards, guidance materials and Nationwide’s Experience Language (NEL) to continually improve the quality of our products and services for members and colleagues. 
• Establish a strategy for maintaining recognised levels of accessibility and build upon them by striving for continuous yet pragmatic improvements. 

Seek guidance, build confidence 

We seek guidance to keep improving our capabilities and build our confidence by continually learning. We engage with subject matter experts to broaden our knowledge and understanding of accessibility and inclusive design practices. We care about the experience of our members and colleagues and use this compassion to increase our awareness, so we know we are doing accessibility well. 

Key actions

• Engage with the Nationwide Accessibility team regularly to support teams in doing accessibility well. 
• Empower accessibility champions to provide help and support on a day-to-day basis. 
• Encourage colleagues to attend accessibility training programmes and promote regular collaborative learning. 
• Develop a deep understanding of accessibility best practices by learning and following a range of industry experts. 
• Support others by becoming an accessibility champion and help promote accessibility best practices. 

Embrace change 

We adapt to changing needs and demands. We change as the world changes, adjusting to environments, technologies, or circumstances while maintaining our goal of equal access for all our members and colleagues. 

Key actions  

• Recognise that digital technology enables everyone to have the same opportunities to participate in Society to the best of their abilities. 
• Recognise that designing for people with different needs enables innovation and creates opportunities for producing great products that everyone can use. 
• Understand that accessibility and inclusion are “never done”, and as new processes and technologies emerge, such as open banking, artificial intelligence and machine learning and as accessibility guidance and assistive technologies change, we must consider accessibility from the start to ensure these platforms are available to everyone.