A PROFOUNDLY deaf woman has been awarded £2,000 by the Northern Bank after an incident in which she was unable to report fraud on her account because of her disability.
Fiona McKendry, from Belfast, who wears hearing aids in both ears and is a skilled lip reader, was assisted by the Equality Commission in bringing the discrimination case.
The financial professional contacted the bank via telephone, with the help of her brother, after she spotted ongoing fraudulent activity on her account.
She said: "I asked my brother to explain my disability and to ask for a reasonable adjustment to enable me to act quickly. I didn't want my brother to act for me, I wanted him to relay the instructions of the bank employee to me and I would respond via the speaker phone.
"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 next morning, Ms McKendry was invited to meet the branch manager who confirmed 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, an offer which Ms McKendry turned down.
She said: “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."
As part of the settlement, the bank has put in place technology to make its service more accessible to people with hearing impairments.
It also made the payment without admission of liability.
