Barclays offer new lipspeaker service for customers with hearing loss

Barclays bank customers who have hearing loss will be able to have their telephone conversations with the bank interpreted by a lipspeaker, thanks to a new service.

In a UK banking first, this new development aims to make sure all Barclays customers are able to access telephone banking services more easily.

Once a customer has opted-in and set up this service, a unique marker will be attached to their profile and they will be able to use a lipspeaker in future conversations with the bank. The service can be accessed 7 days a week, 365 days a year between 8am and 9pm.

For customers who aren’t registered, Barclays also has a ‘Live Chat’ facility within the Barclays Mobile Banking app, providing a secure instant-messaging service to help customers access their banking anywhere, anytime.

Kathryn Townsend, Head of Customer and Client Accessibility at Barclays UK, said: “Barclays puts accessibility at the heart of what we do, and places a lot of importance on getting this right for customers. The introduction of this new service for Deaf and hard of hearing customers provides another example of where we have listened to our customers, and made changes based on their feedback.”

Ellie Parfitt, @deafieblogger and the Barclays customer who helped develop this new service, said: “It’s fantastic to see that Barclays has implemented a new system for deaf people like myself, who need to make banking enquiry phone calls through a lipspeaker. It gives us freedom to become more independent and makes our banking experiences easier and more accessible.

For more information, please go to https://www.barclays.co.uk/accessibility/