Hear­ing-im­paired and deaf per­sons have been ben­e­fit­ting from a more in­clu­sive cus­tomer ex­pe­ri­ence at Sco­tia­bank, as front-line em­ploy­ees at each branch have all been trained in Sign Lan­guage.

Sco­tia­bank says deaf and hard of hear­ing per­sons do not al­ways en­joy equal or con­ve­nient ac­cess to bank­ing ser­vices and of­ten need to com­mu­ni­cate through a third par­ty, hence the de­ci­sion to have em­ploy­ees re­ceive sign lan­guage train­ing.

An of­fi­cial state­ment from Sco­tia­bank re­ports that since 2021, front-line em­ploy­ees across the Bank’s branch­es have par­tic­i­pat­ed in a se­ries of ed­u­ca­tion­al train­ing on Fin­ger Spelling, Sign Lan­guage Vo­cab­u­lary, Ba­sic Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Bank­ing Com­mu­ni­ca­tion.

Sco­tia­bank’s Se­nior VP and Man­ag­ing Di­rec­tor, Gayle Pa­zos, notes that to date, just un­der 50 em­ploy­ees have been cer­ti­fied.  She says the Bank re­mains com­mit­ted to rolling out con­tin­ued train­ing for more em­ploy­ees in the near fu­ture.

“Pro­vid­ing the best bank­ing ser­vices means cre­at­ing an en­vi­ron­ment that takes in­to ac­count and re­spects the re­quire­ments and needs of all our cus­tomers. Hav­ing em­ploy­ees trained in sign lan­guage en­ables them to com­mu­ni­cate more ef­fec­tive­ly with deaf and hard of hear­ing cus­tomers. It al­so sup­ports cus­tomers’ abil­i­ty to car­ry out their bank­ing trans­ac­tions with com­plete in­de­pen­dence, boost­ing their con­fi­dence and com­fort in deal­ing with the Bank,” Pa­zos com­ment­ed.

The Sco­tia­bank top ex­ec added: “We’re proud that 95% of branch­es have cer­ti­fied em­ploy­ees who aim to pro­vide a more pos­i­tive, hands-on and in­clu­sive ex­pe­ri­ence for the deaf and hard of hear­ing com­mu­ni­ty.”

A deaf cus­tomer of the San Fer­nan­do branch com­mend­ed Sco­tia­bank’s ini­tia­tive:

“Now that Sco­tia­bank has sign lan­guage as a tool, every­one gets an op­por­tu­ni­ty to com­mu­ni­cate pri­vate­ly with­out the need for an in­ter­preter. I am hap­py that my com­mu­ni­ty can now ac­cess bank­ing ser­vices eas­i­er.”

Sco­tia­bank says its em­ploy­ees al­so ap­pre­ci­ate the train­ing they have re­ceived.

“Par­tic­i­pat­ing in the train­ing has al­lowed me to have a greater ap­pre­ci­a­tion, ba­sic un­der­stand­ing and means of com­mu­ni­cat­ing with mem­bers of the deaf and hard of hear­ing com­mu­ni­ty who vis­it the branch,” said Akil­la Mor­ton, of Sco­tia­bank’s Low­lands Branch. “I have al­ready used what I learnt to com­mu­ni­cate with deaf and hard of hear­ing cus­tomers in a sim­pler and more ef­fec­tive way.”

“This train­ing has helped me pro­vide ex­cel­lent cus­tomer ser­vice,” as­serts She­be­ka Di­az of the Ari­ma branch. “I en­joy see­ing the smile on my cus­tomers’ faces as I can com­mu­ni­cate with them in their pre­ferred way of un­der­stand­ing.”

“I am proud to be a part of a Bank that has adopt­ed such an in­clu­sive ini­tia­tive, show­ing care for all mem­bers of so­ci­ety,” Di­az added.

World Sign Lan­guage Day is ob­served on Sep­tem­ber 23.