The Australian Bankers' Association (ABA) today released its voluntary industry standards. The aim is to -overcome the digital divide" for people with disabilities and older Australians.
ABA spokesperson Tony Burke said that, from an Internet banking perspective, the focus of the standard was on transactional banking, rather than general information dissemination.
The industry standard also covers ATMs, EFTPOS and automated telephone banking.
-We're trying to get our arms around the core banking application...that which is directly under the bank's control and that which is most relevant to banking services," Burke said.
He said the core of the ABA's standard was version 1.0 of the World Wide Web Consortium's Web content accessibility guidelines. This includes details such as the way navigation is managed.
In addition, Burke said it had added some particular specifications to its standards about the way information is presented on transactional banking sites.
Burke believes users will benefit, because the guidelines should result in sites which are easier to read and navigate through.
