Nationwide has rolled out British Sign Language (BSL) across its website to make it more accessible to Deaf customers.

Nationwide said that it is the first building society to offer the service.

In partnership with the BSL technology company Signly, pre-recorded videos will allow Deaf customers to access to Nationwide’s website in BSL, with the most popular web pages available first.

According to the charity British Deaf Association (BDA), there are around 87,000 Deaf people in the UK who use BSL as their first language.

But regulatory banking body Lending Standards Board (LSB) found that while 65 per cent of banking firms offer BSL services in branch, only six per cent provide on-demand access to website content in BSL.

The building society said that the content available will grow over time, with users able to select any new pages to be translated.

“The recent BSL Act introduction which legally recognises it as language of England, Scotland and Wales, and the upcoming launch of the BSL GCSE show progress, but there remain barriers,” said Kathryn Townsend, head of customer accessibility at Nationwide. “We recognise that for BSL users, accessible communication formats are not always available, so we are proud to launch this new service as part of our commitment to the Deaf community, to improve access to vital financial information.

“Crucially, we work with Deaf charities and people with lived experiences to help inform what we do.”

Nationwide’s new service follows news of the building society’s participation in in the Experian Support Hub scheme, which lets customers record their support needs digitally and share them with multiple companies.

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