News

Volume 4 Issue 3 - February 01, 2006

Bank staff versed with sign language attracts clients with hearing impairment

D.N.I.S. News Network – The Vijaynagar branch of Bank of India in Indore has a new client base among hearing-impaired customers, courtesy its bank staff that has picked up basic sign language to understand its customers better.

This “inclusive” customer care policy began merely as an experiment with four savings accounts six months ago and now the bank has more than 50 customers, most of them students of a special school for hearing impaired in Indore.

“All mothers initially use signs to communicate with their children. And I am a mother,’’ Madhubala Mehta, an officer with the bank, was quoted as saying in a news report. “They (disabled) don’t repeat their mistakes and don’t push their way through demanding special attention like some other customers do,’’ added cashier Prabha Marathe.

Mehta and Marathe are now looking forward to learning more signs by attending a formal course in sign language.