June 23, 2025
On the metro, I met a man who could type faster than me and recite the entire keyboard layout from memory. He was blind. But when he showed me voice control on his phone, he said, "Voice is faster now."
He tried typing "How are you" It came out as "Hor r e" The system read it back but jumped ahead before he could catch the error. He just shrugged: "I don't type anymore." He wasn't struggling because he was blind. The interface just wouldn't wait for him.
This hit me hard because I'd been auditing mBandhan, thinking we'd nailed accessibility. We hadn't even scratched the surface.That moment on the metro made me question how "inclusive" financial platforms truly were. So I looked closer, starting with mBandhan.
We studied the journeys of sending money to someone from the app:
User Journey A: Opens app → clicks on send money → can't find "Add Beneficiary" → gets annoyed → closes app.
User Journey B: Opens app → voice control reads account balance aloud on train → tries to find "send money option" → clicks on send money → tries to add beneficiary → hears "button, button, button" instead of actual labels → gives up → waits for sighted help.
User Journey C (the one we rarely consider): Rural user opens app → sees English interface → recognizes some words from repeated use but struggles with "beneficiary" vs "transfer" → code-switches between Hindi thoughts and English buttons → completes transaction but feels frustrated and "less educated" → continues using the app but never feels confident.
All got frustrated. But Journey A hit a speed bump, Journey B hit a brick wall, and Journey C succeeded but felt diminished in the process. The uncomfortable truth? Most product teams have never included disabled users in their research. Rural language barriers are solved with 'we'll add Hindi later' promises that never happen. And accessibility consultants charge ₹50L for audits that get shelved the moment the legal system says we're compliant.
What Bandhan Bank taught us applies across industries. Each point of friction is a drop in trust, loss of revenue, and damage to the brand:
In rural India, only 31% of households have internet access (vs. 71% in urban areas), yet financial platforms still assume literacy in English. A 2022 KPMG–Google survey found that 55% of small merchants hadn't adopted digital payments due to language and usability barriers. Meanwhile, 78% of rural mobile phone owners have tried mobile payments at least once, but many give up because platforms don't recognize how people actually think and speak.
We keep checking WCAG guidelines boxes to make platforms accessible to everyone, but compliance doesn't mean inclusivity. A satisfied checkbox doesn't guarantee a satisfied customer. It guarantees a satisfied legal department.
The future of inclusive design doesn't lie in adding language options buried in settings, announcing generic labels like "Button," or making rural customers adapt to the interface. It lies in making the interface adapt to the user's needs.
While auditing mBandhan, we discovered systematic exclusion across all disability types in major apps. But the exclusion went beyond disabilities it extended to language, literacy, and cultural barriers we'd been ignoring.
Language barriers in Indian fintech are massive but invisible. A 2022 survey found that 75% of financial executives recognize language barriers as a major obstacle to fintech adoption, particularly for rural users who speak one of India's 120+ local languages. Despite this, English dominates interfaces, as only 15% of fintech apps offer robust multilingual support.
This creates a vicious cycle: platforms design in English, users adapt to avoid seeming "less educated," and companies interpret this adaptation as genuine preference.
Google Pay: Financial terms like "UPI PIN" have no direct Hindi equivalents. Users code-switch mid-sentence ("₹500 transfer karna hai mom ko"), breaking traditional voice recognition.
Stashfin: Language barriers exacerbate financial literacy gaps. A 2023 RBI report notes that ~20% of loan defaults in tier-2/3 cities stem from misunderstood terms, often due to English-only interfaces. Clear native-language communication reduces default rates by 15%.
Hyperlocal platforms (Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart): Delivery agents strongly prefer calling customers for coordination - it's faster and clearer for them. This creates a fundamental mismatch: the most efficient communication method for delivery partners becomes a complete barrier for users with auditory disabilities.
With over 26 million Indians with disabilities representing a $13+ billion market, these failures cost businesses measurable revenue while systematically excluding users from essential services. This is precisely where tools like Contextualization and Customization can bridge the gap - understanding not just what users need, but how they actually behave in real situations.
The turnaround story: In 2020, Zomato was called "one of the worst apps for accessibility" by users. Within one month of receiving petitions, they implemented WCAG standards, fixed screen reader navigation, and improved color contrast. They went "from being one of the worst... to one of the best apps in the business," earning user loyalty and competitive advantage. Why did Zomato move so fast? Because bad PR costs more than engineering time. Most companies wait until the reputational damage is done.
Meanwhile, Google and Apple invest heavily in accessibility because they understand it drives innovation for everyone. Google's collaboration with blind users to improve TalkBack led to voice navigation features that all users now rely on. Apple's focus on accessibility from day one creates technologies like Voice Control and Switch Control that become essential tools for everyone from parents with busy hands to users in loud environments.
The difference? They design with disabled users, not for them, and discover that accessibility constraints often lead to breakthrough innovations. When you solve for the most challenging use cases, you often find the most efficient solutions that scale to benefit everyone.
Our mBandhan audit revealed three critical failures that most apps share:
1. Lost Context
2. Navigation Overload
3. Privacy Exposed
These fixes didn't just help users with disabilities, they improved the experience for everyone. Which led us to develop a framework for thinking about accessibility differently.
Before this experience, accessibility was a checkbox at the end. Now it's the lens through which we see everything, built on three core principles:
Contextualization: Understand when, where, and how people use your product. Will it work in a crowded market? Will a parent use it one-handed? Will a rural merchant try to switch between Hindi and English?
Customization: Build for fluidity, Hindi voice commands for rural customers, screen readers that adapt context and labeling for blind users, text inputs that accept Hinglish, visual elements that reduce cognitive load for neurodiverse users.
Consistency: Trust is built when platforms behave reliably across touchpoints announce information securely (no "account balance aloud" moments), maintain visual and functional continuity across screens, respect privacy and context every step of the way.
In practice, this means:
Start small: Pick one user journey. Test it with someone who uses assistive technology. You'll discover issues that benefit all users, and improvements often take weeks, not months.
The accessibility audit isn't the end of the story. It's the beginning of a different conversation - one where "Does this work?" becomes more important than "Does this comply?" The goal isn't perfection, it's progress. Every interface that waits for users instead of rushing them. Every app that speaks their language instead of forcing adaptation. Every moment when someone doesn't have to choose between dignity and functionality.
For product owners, CEOs, and PMs reading this: Stop treating accessibility as a checklist. Treat it as an investment. Treat it as a core experience metric. Because when you design for the edges, you improve the center. The rest is just keeping score.
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