Emirates NBD introduces 'Traveller HD' service for visually impaired

Emirates NBD branches in Dubai Festival City, Hamriya and Al Qusais in Dubai will be the first to offer the high definition reader, being introduced as part of the bank’s flagship advocacy platform #TogetherLimitless, that supports financial inclusion of persons with disabilities in the UAE.

Traveller HD is a lightweight video magnifier that offers adjustable magnification of up to 30 times the original text size, enabling customers with impaired vision or age-related difficulties to comfortably read forms, cheques and other documents, with the help of a unique slide-and-read mechanism.

Images are displayed in high definition, as well as in different contrasting colour combinations, with a tilted screen offering ergonomic viewing and natural reading experience.

"Making banking accessible for People of Determination is key to our commitment to financial inclusion," said Suvo Sarkar, Senior Executive Vice President, Head of Retail Banking and Wealth Management, Emirates NBD.

"Our investment in innovative assistive technologies is helping us to not only enhance the banking experience for people of determination but also empower them towards independence in their day-to-day lives."

The World Health Organisation, WHO, states that an estimated 285 million people worldwide are visually impaired, of which 246 million suffer from low vision.

As part of its commitment to financial inclusion, Emirates NBD offers a braille-enabled account opening service to customers with visual disabilities at four of its branches, in addition to braille currency issued by the Central Bank of the UAE across all of its disability-friendly branches, on request.

To date, the bank has transformed 38 branches to become "disability-friendly".

Other initiatives implemented include continuous training of branch managers and frontline staff in the basics of American Sign Language; piloting KinTrans, a technology that enables easy two-way communication between sign language communicators with hearing disabilities and people who use spoken languages; and a hearing loop in two of its branches for customers using a hearing aid.