Nationwide Building Society launches British Sign Language service

Nationwide Building Society has rolled out a new digital service by providing its website in British Sign Language (BSL).

It has partnered with BSL technology company Signly to help improve access to financial services.

BSL content is in the form of pre-recorded signed videos, with the most popular web pages becoming available first, the Society said.

Nationwide said content will grow over time and users can select any new pages to be translated.

The Society pointed to figures from charity the British Deaf Association (BDA), estimating that BSL is the first language of over 87,000 deaf people across the UK.

Nationwide recently announced it is taking part in the Experian support hub scheme, which lets customers record their support needs digitally and share them with multiple companies.

Kathryn Townsend, head of customer accessibility at Nationwide said: “British Sign Language is a rich, visual language.”

She added: “Crucially, we work with deaf charities and people with lived experiences to help inform what we do.”

The announcement coincides with Sign Language Week (March 18 to 24).

Reg Cobb, CEO of charity deafPLUS, said: “It’s vital that corporate organisations, such as Nationwide, are working together towards a world with equal access for deaf people, so they don’t have to rely on support from deaf organisations.”