Deaf Woman Settles Alleged Disability Discrimination Case Against Bank

The Northern Bank has paid a profoundly deaf woman £2,000 and introduced new technology to help deaf customers after an alleged disability discrimination case.

The case emerged after Fiona McKendry from Belfast, who is profoundly deaf, wears hearing aids in both ears and is a skilled lip reader, was refused the right to communicate with a banking employee through her brother after spotting attempts at fraudulent activity on her account.

The bank made the settlement without admitting liability and also made the adjustments to its service.

Ms McKendry had requested a reasonable adjustment to allow her to react to the situation quickly, hoping that her brother could relay the instructions from the employee which she would lip read and respond via speaker phone.

She explained: "Even though the bank employee said he could hear me, the account holder, he refused me service because I was lip-reading the information the employee provided to my brother via speaker phone. I could see attempted transactions happening on my account while this call was ongoing and was extremely worried."

The bank had in fact blocked the card immediately after her phone call, but following what she saw as a refusal of service, Ms McKendry contacted her bank via secure messaging on the online banking app. The app says it can take 3- 5 days or more to get a response and Fiona was concerned this would be inadequate in her urgent situation.

The next morning she was invited to meet the branch manager who confirmed that her card had been blocked following her call, her account was safe and missing funds would be re-instated. The manager suggested putting in place a mandate that would give her brother access and transaction rights to her bank accounts.

As a financial professional capable of managing her financial affairs herself, she turned the offer down and made a formal complaint to the Northern Bank and contacted the Equality Commission.

Ms McKendry explained: "I found this whole episode hugely frustrating- I have no problem running my own finances and I only needed my brother in this instance to act as a go-between so that I could act quickly and decisively to stop money being fraudulently taken from my bank account. I am very pleased that the Bank has now put in place technology I can use if I need to contact it in a hurry, which gives me a lot more confidence to deal with the situation if it crops up again."

Danske Bank is a trading name of Northern Bank Ltd registered in Northern Ireland. Northern Bank Ltd is a member of the Danske Bank Group.

Mary Kitson, Senior Legal Officer with the Equality Commission, commented: "This case is worth noting for two reasons.  First, it's a very positive outcome that the Bank has made its services more accessible to people with hearing impairments. As part of the settlement of the case, the Bank has put in place a reasonable adjustment to the service it provides through the use of new technology. One of the main reasons we support discrimination cases is to change things for the better, so its action is very welcome. Fiona is confident to continue banking with the Northern Bank and delighted with this positive outcome for everyone.

"Secondly, year after year, disability discrimination is the most common cause of complaint to our advice line, and many of these are about access to services. Service providers must be aware of the requirement to make their services accessible to everyone. This has been the case in service provision since 1999."



(JG/MH)