Web Accessibility in CoFa

a laptop screen showing "accessible finance is a human right, not a feature."

Once upon a future time, there will be a fully accessible banking product at DKB. While we’re not there yet, let me show you where we stand today.

It all started in the faraway land of the EU Commission, dreaming of a Union of Equality — a society that is inclusive and accessible to everyone. This dream included making essential online services accessible to all people, regardless of their abilities. So, they brought forth a directive that every country had to follow. Germany listened — and, of course, implemented it in the most German way possible: with a wonderfully descriptive, 33-character word: Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz.

“Alright, let’s do this,” the companies said. And CoFa answered, “Let’s make it happen!”

At CoFa we took the strategy to first make sure that our teams have the right knowledge to make the change happen. We started with the company-wide training course across all departments. The next step was to identify key user flows. This was followed by an audit conducted by a third-party agency, along with user testing through surveys and usability sessions involving screen reader users to evaluate our flows.

Meanwhile, the Accessibility Guild was growing—both in size and in knowledge. Colleagues from Legal, Product, Design, and Development came together to tackle the challenge. All united around a shared goal: to build accessible banking products for everyone. Turning that collaboration into action, we’ve built the infrastructure that helps teams embed accessibility from the very beginning of product development:

  • We strategically maintain the Design System library to provide product teams with accessible UI components following WCAG principles and guidelines.
  • We’ve created checklists for designers and developers.
  • We run training courses and workshops for new and existing teams.
  • We’ve built a growing pool of knowledge filled with best practices.
  • Teams are working to improve accessibility in key user flows.
  • Product Owners are reviewing audit reports and adding issues to sprints.

Our path is not set in stone—it’s evolving with every step we take. Coming up next:

  • Workshops to boost the teams’ knowledge
  • And the DKB Tech Conference in September

All while continuing to make our products accessible. It’s a big dream and just like the EU Commission, we’ve committed to building a Union of Equality. We've set our sights on that vision — and we invite you to join us.

this article was written by the Accessibility Guild: Justina Valda-Rajic, Jennifer Wjertzoch, Lukasz Piotrowski, Istvan Ikvahidi, Lissy Bonness