TUKWILA, Wash.–BECU here has agreed to make its website and mobile banking app accessible to blind users following complaints from a national organization and local members.
The agreement came after the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), its Washington affiliate and three blind individuals warned they might sue under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Washington State Law Against Discrimination, Eve Hill, an attorney for Baltimore-based law firm Brown, Goldstein & Levy, told the Seattle Times.
BECU member Marci Carpenter, was quoted as saying the credit union’s services were accessible to blind customers when she first joined BECU approximately eight years ago. The Seattle Times reported that a software update had removed the accessibility features.
Carpenter, who is president of the NFB’s Washington chapter and has been blind since birth, said she uses screen reader software that speaks text aloud, but websites and applications must be coded properly to successfully interact with screen reader technology.
BECU said it is now working to update the software to restore the accessibility, and expects to have that work completed by March 31, 2019.
The issue is similar to that being faced by many credit unions nationally being hit with demand letters and lawsuits related to alleged violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act regarding their websites.