Beth writes about her challenging experience with her bank’s voice recognition software.
My bank uses voice recognition as a security measure because they say your voice is unique. I have tried twice, but my voice is not recognised. As an Ataxia warrior, I am finding the pitch and clarity of my voice constantly changing hard. I must be kind to myself and realise this is their issue with the voice recognition software, not mine. I have written a complaint to them, and I think it’s important to highlight issues like this and not just feel frustrated about them.
We must realise that unless we walk in our Ataxia shoes, it is difficult to understand what things we find challenging or hamper us from being able to do something which others find easy. Anyone with voice issues would have problems with this system. If they had done an equality impact assessment, this should have been picked up as an issue, and then an alternative option would have been put in place for disabled customers.
Life is hard and having to cope with dealing with barriers to doing simple things, like just speaking to your bank, makes it harder. Things like these are so frustrating and can bring you down, and you automatically feel this is your issue, ending up blaming yourself. I took a step back and realised that anyone with voice issues would struggle in this situation. If I let this go, other people will still be affected in the future. I don’t know if my raising this issue will make any difference, but as an Ataxia Warrior, I’m going to try.
