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Gold card group commitment
Abbey National's policy
The Abbey National Group is committed to setting the industry standard for equality of access and quality of service for disabled people throughout its business.
We will 'grasp the spirit' behind the disability legislation and take an inclusive approach in all our actions.
Underlying this commitment is the fundamental belief in the right of customers and staff to be treated with dignity and respect and to be guaranteed freedom from discrimination on the grounds of disability, colour, religion, ethnic or national origin, sex or marital status.
Abbey National's Disability Services Team
Here's how Abbey National is achieving some of this:
Customer service
- Providing an on-going programme of training and education to increase staff awareness of disability issues
- Taking an inclusive approach to ensure excellent customer service to everyone
- Ensuring equality and quality of access to all our services through the provision of relevant aids and services
- Regular consultation with customers and staff to ensure continuous improvement
- Some practical examples include
- Individual help with form filling
- Documentation, including statements, in Braille, large print, PC disc or audio tape
- Sign language interpreters, when requested
- Fixed and portable induction loops in all branches
- Textphones.
Employment
- We are a 'Positive about Disability' standard employer
- Recruiting people with disabilities solely on their ability to do the job
- Providing special aids and equipment to help new and existing staff with disabilities, e.g:
- Voice recognition systems as a substitute for keyboards
- Image enhancement systems to magnify PC screens 10 times
- Braille keyboards and scanners that read out documents to the user
- Special hearing aids to enable normal speech and telephone usage
- Modifications to enable cashiers with disabilities to operate counter workstations
- Twelve month training courses to tackle dyslexia
- Enabling Unit - Test site comprising a variety of aids and adaptations
- Specific training geared to each persons individual needs.
- working in partnership with organisations such as "Workable" "Interwork" and the Governments "New deal" programme.
For further information contact Judi Ainsley at Disability Services on
- Telephone: (01908) 349830
- Textphone: (01908) 349185
- Fax: (01908) 343715