accessFinTech: Designing Accessible Financial Technology
Jiamin Dai, Benjamin M. Gorman, Garreth W. Tigwell, Helena Marie Lyhme, Belén Barros Pena, Karyn Moffatt, Celine Latulipe · 2024 · Proceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2024) · doi:10.1145/3663548.3688551
Summary
This workshop proposal addresses the growing need for accessible financial technology (fintech) as digital banking, mobile payments, and cryptocurrencies become increasingly central to economic and social participation. The authors define fintech as digital technologies that mediate access to, and transactions with, financial information and assets. The paper establishes that while HCI research in fintech has evolved from designing augmented paper cheques for older adults to reimagining money as an interface, accessibility remains inadequately addressed across the fintech landscape. A significant body of emerging work is highlighted, including research on the cognitive accessibility of digital payments, online security concerns for older adults with mild cognitive impairment, the relationship between poor mental health and financial hardship, and financial management among people with dementia and their care partners. A central theme is financial delegation — how older adults and people with mental health conditions rely on close others (family, friends, support workers) for financial tasks, yet current banking systems neither acknowledge nor support this practice. People are forced to share credentials, creating serious privacy and exploitation risks. The workshop, held virtually over one week during ASSETS 2024, used divergent and convergent ideation phases to collaboratively develop a research agenda for accessible fintech, bringing together academic researchers and industry practitioners from multiple countries.
Key findings
The proposal surfaces several critical accessibility gaps in financial technology. First, financial delegation — where someone helps another person manage their finances — is not only unsupported by current fintech but actively punished by financial institutions' terms and conditions, forcing users into insecure workarounds like password sharing. Research from Canada has shown that proxy accounts can provide legitimacy and accountability for financial delegates, while behavioural nudges help delegates bank more accurately. Second, the fintech accessibility challenge varies significantly across countries, with different services, policies, and accessibility guidelines creating a complex international landscape. Third, emerging technologies like Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and cryptocurrencies present both new accessibility challenges and opportunities — cryptocurrency platforms have documented barriers for users with disabilities, yet little research exists on inclusive design for these technologies. Fourth, the intersection of cognitive accessibility and fintech is particularly under-explored, despite the growing number of people with dementia, mental health conditions, and cognitive impairments who need to manage finances digitally. The workshop aimed to build an "accessFinTech" community and produce outputs including a SIGACCESS newsletter report and an Interactions magazine feature article.
Relevance
This workshop highlights a domain where inaccessible technology has immediate, material consequences — inability to access financial services means exclusion from basic economic participation. As physical bank branches close and cash usage declines globally, digital financial services become not optional but essential, making their accessibility a civil rights issue. The financial delegation problem identified here affects millions of older adults and people with disabilities who rely on informal help for banking tasks. For practitioners, the key insight is that security models based on individual authentication fundamentally conflict with the reality of how many people actually use financial services. Organizations developing fintech products should consider proxy access models, cognitive accessibility in payment interfaces, and the diverse cultural and regulatory contexts in which their products operate. The workshop's emphasis on cryptocurrency and CBDC accessibility is particularly timely as governments worldwide explore digital currencies.
Tags: financial technology · fintech · digital payments · banking accessibility · cognitive accessibility · older adults · financial delegation · digital inclusion · cryptocurrency accessibility · CBDC