Coming soon: Accessibility Insights with Paul Smyth of Barclays

Annie Mannion | 18 Aug 2020

Paul Smyth, Head of Digital Accessibility at Barclays, will join us on Tuesday 8 September 2020, 1pm BST as the next guest in our Accessibility Insights webinar series.

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Image of Robin Christopherson and Paul Smyth

Robin Christopherson MBE, Head of Digital Inclusion at AbilityNet hosts a monthly online chat with individuals who are each working to improve digital accessibility and digital inclusion.

Robin (pictured above, left) will be chatting with Paul Smyth MBE (above, right), founder and leader of Digital Accessibility at Barclays. He’s an international expert and thought leader, helping address technological barriers faced by customers or staff with disabilities. 
 
They’ll discuss:

  • How COVID-19 has impacted Barclays customers and staff 
  • Where accessible banking is heading
  • How Barclays embeds accessibility at scale
  • How the accessibility profession is evolving 

Over recent years Paul’s led on a number of firsts for accessible banking, including talking ATMs, high visibility debit cards and regularly performing disabled user testing across the Barclays website and mobile app. He’s also helped overhaul their Workplace Adjustments process to support staff with disabilities to be as productive as possible.
 
Barclays has shifted the culture from accessibility being perceived as a legal requirement to a commercial opportunity. Many of its accessibility resources are shared externally to help support other businesses on their own accessibility journey.
 
Paul sits on several boards and advisory panels for disability charities and in 2019 was appointed as a disability sector champion for web accessibility by the UK government’s Disability Minister. He’s also a co-chair of the Business Disability Forum Technology Taskforce, encouraging organisations to work together to make technology work for everyone. In 2020 Paul was awarded an MBE for services to disability inclusion within banking.

Follow Paul on Twitter: @pa79smyth

Register now for the webinar >>


Further resources

AbilityNet provides a range of free services to help disabled people and older people. If you can afford it, please donate to help us support older and disabled people through technology