Have you forgotten your glasses? Broken your leg? Are you out and about with a pram? Everyday life can quickly turn into a
challenge. Price tags are illegible, stairs insurmountable, narrow passages impassable. Sparkasse Trier wants to make sure that
its customers have access to its services and therefore has been promoting a fully accessible environment for years.
Miriam Ostermann is good at planning. As a wheelchair user, she is aware of her limits. She knows that shopping or going to the
cinema might take her a little longer because in her home town of Trier many of the shops and buildings are not wheelchair-
accessible. With one positive exception: the Savings Bank. Most of the branches of Sparkasse Trier can be accessed via ramps or
elevators.
The institution is promoting fully accessible banking services – and they mean it. It is important for Sparkasse Trier that every
customer has access to all of their services, regardless of disabilities or physical limitations. The operation of cashpoints was
simplified, and the keys enlarged to help blind or visually impaired customers to feel the functions. The machines were also
equipped with larger monitors to significantly increase the legibility of the displayed information.
There is at least one so-called ‘talking cashpoint’ at each of Sparkasse Trier’s cashpoint locations. These provide audible
instructions for all the machine’s functions. Every branch has headphones available to ensure that all information is delivered
privately. Of course, visually impaired or blind customers may also use barrier-free online banking facilities. “These investments
are important, also in the light of the demographic change that is taking place in our region and throughout the whole of Germany.
We will continue along this path until we have reached our goal: barrier-free financial services for all,” declares Dr Peter
Späth, Vice CEO of Sparkasse Trier. Sparkasse Trier’s exemplary attitude makes it a role model well beyond the financial services
sector: The Chamber of Trade in Trier certified the Trierweiler Savings Bank branch as an “accessible, family- and senior
citizen-friendly service provider with regard to demographic change”.
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