Scotiabank’s 2024 Accessible Canada Act Progress Report

Scotiabank strives to be the employer of choice for the diverse communities we serve.  Our goal is to create a long-lasting culture of equity, inclusion, accessibility and belonging. We aim to make all our systems, practices, and processes equitable.

Our global DEI strategy builds on Scotiabank’s Inclusion Commitments. We are committed to creating an inclusive and diverse workforce. To us, this means people feel they belong, can be their authentic selves, and thrive at work.

To better serve our clients and communities, we win as one team.

* These dates are estimates and actual completion dates may vary.

In 2020,

• Scotiabank made the commitment to increase workplace representation of people with disabilities. We are making good progress towards this goal. Now, we intend to continue hiring and supporting employees through all job levels.
• Scotiabank Canada’s goal is to increase the number of people with disabilities working for us by 20% by the end of 2025.

Although we have increased the number of employees with disabilities overall, we are continuing to drive equitable and inclusive hiring practices.

The People with Disabilities Employment Equity Plan (EEP) continues to evolve to further reflect the work that business lines, and their inclusion councils, are undertaking to address barriers to inclusion and accessibility.

In 2023, some of the key priorities for the People with Disabilities EEP were (but are not limited to):

• Addressing the needs of the Accessible Canada Act.
• Implementing the Accessibility Operating Model.
• Delivering accessible documents through the HR Knowledge Management systems.
• Ensuring equitable and inclusive learning resources and platforms are available.
• Including Business and Functional Line roles and responsibilities for delivering inclusion and accessibility into the EEP; and
• Championing the:
  • Accessibility audit for Real Estate and Design
  • Hiring initiatives through the Talent Acquisition team
  • New project support documents and checklists with our Program Management Office (PMO) to ensure accessibility requirements and considerations are included in Planning, Solution Design and Transition to users.
  • Launch the Accommodation Portal by the Workplace Accommodation team.

Governance and oversight are provided by the Employee Accessibility Executive Council (EAEC). The EAEC receives bi-monthly progress updates on initiatives within the Employment Equity Plan. The EAEC is a group of cross-functional senior leaders with a global mandate of sponsoring and enabling employee accessibility initiatives across the bank. They ensure the bank is prioritizing accessible, equitable, and inclusive career lifecycles for employees with disabilities in a targeted way.

Global Human Resources, through the stewardship of the Workplace Accommodation and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion teams, has developed and implemented the Accessibility Operating Model (AOM).

Feedback from our employees shows that Scotiabank must remove some barriers to provide an equitable and inclusive experience for employees with disabilities and those accessing accommodations. In response, Global Human Resources created the AOM to address unique operational needs. The operating model includes efforts that go beyond compliance and towards a best-in-class employee experience of belonging and inclusion.

The Accessibility Operating Model lays out how we’ll enhance existing systems and the steps we will continue to take towards sustainable long-term impact. By addressing our operational needs through the AOM, we hope to set up the foundation of how key stakeholders can work together to deliver projects and programs that provide a best-in-class experience for employees with disabilities.

Improvements and objectives outlined in the AOM will continue to progress gradually until the end of 2025. We’ll track our success using the following:

• Key performance indicators within the People with Disabilities EEP.
• Annual ScotiaPulse results from employees with disabilities.
• Global Diversity Survey results.

These efforts are aligned with the bank’s representation goals for 2025.

The following elements of the Accessibility Operating Model will be addressed through to the end of 2025:

• Defining and amplifying “accessibility by design”.
• Creating process optimization for a more seamless experience for employees with disabilities.
• Evolving and enhancing the redeployment experience for employees coming back from leave.
• Sharing employee insights, and the actions the bank is taking to gather and address feedback.
• Being intentional about including and consulting people with disabilities in creating programs, policies, and initiatives.
• Resourcing and training opportunities, called capability building, that look at neurodiversity, allyship, and accessibility across employee platforms and learning hubs.

In 2023, Scotiabank focused on hiring people with disabilities in full-time roles across job levels and business units. We expanded our internship and student hiring programs.

To expand student hiring, we created relationships with student centres, clubs, and groups across Canada. In 2023, Scotiabank hosted or attended 164 diversity events (related to various equity-deserving groups and their intersectional identities), and 5 events specifically for students who identify as people with disabilities.

• Scotiabank holds three key relationships with universities:
  • Western University’s Hire Ability
  • York University’s People with Disabilities Recruitment Events
  • Smith University’s EDI3 Program

As a result, the bank hired 6% students with disabilities for co-op and internship positions in 2023.

• For non-student hires, Scotiabank focused on developing community-driven strategies for providing accommodations during the application process and throughout the employment period.

To improve candidate attraction and retention, we’ve done the following:

• Used Plum (a candidate assessment tool) to provide a better candidate experience, including alternatives for persons with disabilities.
• Partnered with the Workplace Accommodations team to review how to identify, coordinate, implement and support effective accommodations in the workplace.

Scotiabank organized 3 workshops with community partners to support hiring of people with disabilities across job levels. First, we initiated conversations with hiring managers to ensure job postings used inclusive language. Then, we connected with our community partners to post our roles to make sure a diverse list of candidates was shared with hiring managers. As a result, the bank created a pilot program focused on hiring people with low vision or who are blind.

Moving forward, we’re continuing our hiring partnerships with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) through their Come to Work events and the Connecting the Dots virtual networking and in-person hiring events.

Thanks to these partnerships, Scotiabank has seen great results.

• More applications: Applications from people with disabilities increased by 29%.
• New hires: In 2023, the bank hired 458 people with disabilities.
• Community connections: Our business teams hosted information sessions with regional community partners about hiring people with disabilities.
• Networking and learning: We took part in networking events and development information sessions.

* These dates are estimates and actual completion dates may vary.
** We noticed an error in our Scotiabank Accessibility Plan 2023-2026, which stated that audits of 10 offices would be completed, rather than 5 offices and 5 branches.  We are fixing the mistake here. 

Scotiabank’s Real Estate department has engaged the Rick Hansen Foundation to conduct Facility Accessibility Assessments at 5 branch locations and 5 office locations. The audits will include the Rick Hansen Foundation Accessibility Certification (RHFAC) rating, along with specific recommendations for improvement.

The Real Estate department is committed to ongoing learning about addressing accessibility barriers in the built environment. They will participate in a Lunch-and-Learn training session hosted by the Rick Hansen Foundation. Select members of the team will take the Rick Hansen Certification training in 2024.

In 2023, the Global Operations team installed braille signage at 2 of the Global Operations locations. Other campuses and sites are in progress and are set to complete installing braille signs in July 2024.

In line with our standards, the Workplace Transformation and Real Estate teams added features to 10 branches in 2023 to make spaces more accessible. These features include entrance ramps, automatic door openers, clear paths of travel, and accessible parking spaces.

Other enhancements include:

• Lighting
  • LED lighting strip at the base of teller wickets for persons who are visually impaired.
• Seating
  • New benches added in teller lines to assist those who may not be able to stand for a long time or have a temporary injury.

In 2023, we updated our internal real estate accessibility standards to meet or exceed new Accessibility for Ontarians with Disability Act standards to include:

• In-office wellness spaces, such as personal care rooms, reflection rooms, and inclusive washrooms.
• New signage standards featuring braille.

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At Scotiabank, we’re committed to digital accessibility. Our dedicated team serves as a central resource to build and champion digital accessibility across the bank. With a renewed emphasis on digital banking as part of Scotiabank’s new strategic plan, it is even more vital now than ever before.

* These dates are estimates and actual completion dates may vary.

In 2023, we completed the following efforts to set internal standards:

• We finished phase one of our EN-301-549 (proposed Information and Communication Technologies Standard (ICT)) review to understand gaps in our current standard. We’re developing a plan to close them.
• We started a detailed check of our own resources, guidelines and tools to make them more useful to our partners and in line with the new technology standards (ICT standard EN 301-549) of the Accessible Canada Act.
• We wrote guidelines for social media accessibility. We’re training our marketing team and content writers on these guidelines.

We made the following key efforts to expand existing digital accessibility testing tools and processes:

• We launched a test program to see how well we’re doing with our accessibility processes and results, and we’re tracking improvement.
• We added a new tool for our web content managers to find and fix accessibility issues before publishing content on our site.
• We have started a review of our accessibility toolkit and methodology. This will help our website development teams discover and fix potential accessibility issues earlier in their workflow.

The Digital Client Experience Design team includes people with disabilities in qualitative and quantitative research. This helps us understand and include their barriers, preferences, needs, and perspectives in the design of digital products and services.

In 2023, we did 24 in-depth interviews with 186 participants, where 15% of participants identified as having a disability. We conducted 8 surveys with 6,595 respondents, where 11% of respondents identified as having a disability. We provided accommodations, including American Sign Language Interpretation, when asked, so participants with disabilities could fully engage in the user research.

Progress underway

We set up a SharePoint site where managers and employees can learn about and find tools (like the assistive technologies) designed to support employees with disabilities.

We used assistive technology to support neurodiversity:

• Read&Write is a literacy support tool that offers help with everyday tasks such as reading text aloud, and proofreading work. It has been highly successful as it relates to cognitive disabilities and neurodiversity, so we created a training video for employees on how to use the software.

Scotiabank’s Employee Technology Help Center was updated with information about:

• what Assistive Technology is,
• the types of Assistive Technology that are available at the bank,
• how to order assistive technology.

The Assistive Technology Catalogue was added to the Workplace Accommodation portal.

At Scotiabank, we believe it's important everyone gets quick, easy, and fair access to information without barriers. We're committed to making sure all Scotiabank information and communication can be used by everyone.

* These dates are estimates and actual completion dates may vary.

We strive to empower and enable employees to create accessible documents and content and do this in the following ways:

• Created resources to help our employees make documents that everyone can use, including people with disabilities. These resources are now part of our training for everyone who makes documents.
• Released new guides for authoring accessible Word and PowerPoint documents that make information clear, direct, easy to understand, and, most importantly, usable by a wide audience. This includes people with disabilities and those who use assistive technology.
• Worked with a digital accessibility consulting company to help us make our documents more accessible.

Our Inclusion by Design program aims for our marketing and advertising to include an appropriate and balanced representation of equity-deserving groups. We aim to reflect diversity in terms of ability, language, culture, gender, sexual orientation, age, and other forms. Our Chief Marketing Officer leads our Inclusion by Design Committee and helps embed the program across our marketing teams.

In 2023, we held quarterly learning sessions for our Global Marketing organization (typical attendance of about 200–300 employees). Various DE&I topics were covered, including accessibility best practices and their impact on campaign development processes. We used machine learning to conduct automated audits of marketing images and videos. The audits identified potential biases and areas where we could improve the representation of diverse groups. Leveraging the results of our audits, we identified an important opportunity to increase authentic representation of persons with disabilities in our print and digital materials. We participated in the Global Marketing Onboarding Program to help promote Inclusion by Design principles with new hires, which included education around working processes that help elevate authentic portrayal of equity-deserving groups in our communities, including persons with disabilities.

Scotiabank is committed to communicating with our clients and the public using plain language.

To support plain language and accessibility initiatives, we:

• created a Plain Language Council to support our policy and standards guided by new regulatory requirements and industry best practices.
• published the Plain Language Policy supported by internal resources, expert guides, and standards, all organized in one internal SharePoint for employee to leverage. 
• developed the Scotiabank’s Digital Style Guide and Content Standard which includes a section that outlines tips on creating accessible content.

In addition, the bank’s Inclusion council published an Inclusive Terminology Guide to educate people on language that is inclusive and respectful and acknowledges individual identities and experiences. 

After speaking with clients and staff, we heard that not everyone could easily use our banking documents and statements.

This year, we built a new internal system to simplify the process and trained staff on how to use it. With the new system, clients can request alternate formats of bank statements and bank communications (such as terms and conditions, product brochures, and fee change notices) in person at a branch, or over the phone. The alternate formats available include:

• Braille (grade 1 or grade 2)
• Large print (18 pt – 36 pt)
• Accessible PDF
• Audio
  

Financial services are key to creating a better future. At Scotiabank, we’re committed to breaking down obstacles, making it easier for everyone to use financial services and offering financial education, tools, and advice. Our goal is to empower our clients to make informed and responsible financial decisions.

* These dates are estimates and actual completion dates may vary.

Progress underway

In July 2023, Scotiabank teamed up with the Canadian Administrator of Video Relay Services (CAV) to launch a dedicated phone line. This service helps clients with hearing and/or speech impairments, who rely on Video Relay Service (VRS) for remote banking.

Scotiabank’s new service lets clients using the VRS app to call a dedicated phone number with American Sign Language (ASL) or Langue des Signes Québécoise (LSQ). Specially trained Scotiabank Customer Care Advisors answer these calls. They work with the interpreter and the client to make sure the client’s experience is safe and easy to use.

We published the “The Accessible Customer Service Tips Guide”. The guide includes tips and best practices on how to provide excellent client service responsive to the lived experience of people with disabilities.

We also let our branches and contact centres know about accessibility services, including:

• Taking calls through a third-party relay service for clients who are Deaf, deafened or hard of hearing;
• Offering documents in different formats, and
• Accepting and keeping track of feedback on accessibility

We created the Accessibility at Scotiabank, a website that aims to be a one-stop-shop for all things accessibility at the bank. The website has information on everything from how to use our mobile banking app to perform common tasks, and how to leave feedback about Scotiabank’s accessibility.

Before redesigning the Accessibility at Scotiabank, we held focus group research with people with disabilities. We used their insights and suggestions on what information they need and how to make the site easier to use in our redesign.

* These dates are estimates and actual completion dates may vary.

We continue to find ways to integrate accessibility into our procurement processes, and here’s how:

• Scotiabank’s Global Procurement Services is reviewing our procurement policy, process, and training to find ways to incorporate accessibility requirements and standards into the procurement of goods and services.
• We’ll continue to use the ProcureAccess Accessible Technology Procurement Toolkit to inform and develop the bank’s technology procurement practices.
• We’re committed to increasing opportunities to work with diverse suppliers where possible, including Indigenous Peoples, LGBTQ+ people, people of colour, people with disabilities, veterans, and women-owned businesses.

ProcureAccess is a business-to-business initiative facilitated by Disability:IN, the leading global disability inclusion non-profit. ProcureAccess brings together companies that recognize the importance of buying and selling technology that’s accessible to people with disabilities.

In June 2023, Scotiabank joined other leading companies committed to prioritizing accessibility in the procurement process and signed the Procure Access Statement.

Being part of ProcureAccess means we’re committed to working with other companies to procure digital products and services that are accessible to and usable by all our stakeholders with disabilities. Stakeholders include employees, job applicants, clients, and the public. This work is based on global accessibility laws, regulations, and standards, including the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), 2.1 Level AA and future WCAG updates.

Scotiabank doesn’t provide public transportation and hasn’t found any issues with accessibility under this priority area of the Accessible Canada Act.