The European Central Bank has signed an agreement with Spain’s ONCE Foundation to help ensure the planned digital euro app is easy to use for everyone, including people with disabilities, older adults and people with limited digital skills.
The collaboration covers technical advice on accessibility requirements, input into the app’s design and testing of accessibility once early prototypes are available, the European Central Bank said in a statement on Wednesday.
The digital euro is a proposed digital form of central bank money that people could use for everyday payments.
“Accessibility and inclusion are not optional features, but core digital euro design principles,” said ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone, who chairs the High-Level Task Force on a digital euro.
Jesús Hernández Galán, the ONCE Foundation’s Director of Accessibility and Innovation, said the foundation would bring accessibility and user-experience specialists who are people with disabilities into the project team.
Testing the app with prototypes
The ECB said it wants the app to go beyond minimum legal accessibility requirements set out in the European Accessibility Act, an EU law covering accessibility standards for certain products and services.
It stated it plans to use an “accessibility by design” approach, meaning accessibility considerations would be built in from the earliest stages of the app’s development.
Around 70 market participants involved in the ECB’s first digital euro innovation platform said the digital euro could improve inclusion through features such as voice-controlled transactions, large-font displays and guided onboarding.
Focus groups with vulnerable consumers highlighted the need for multiple onboarding options, including in-person support at local branches, and payment processes that resemble familiar experiences.
The collaboration is not remunerated, and the ONCE Foundation is a Spanish organisation working on social inclusion for people with disabilities through areas including accessibility, employment, training and digital transformation.
