Texas banks add services for deaf community

From Fort Worth Business Press in Texas:

The Metroplex’s deaf community now has a new money management resource.

Frost Bank has teamed with the San Antonio-based company Deaf Link to place videophone equipment in some Frost branches that will allow deaf customers and bank employees to communicate with help from a certified Deaf Link interpreter who will interpret via videophone.

“A lot of bankers that we asked, and deaf people we asked, how they communicated, they would say, ‘Well, we write notes back forth,’ and that’s very limited,” said Patti Bliss, senior vice president of consumer sales with Frost Bank. Bliss, whose son, Grayson, is deaf, is also project manager for the Deaf Link partnership.

Writing notes to communicate is limited “because American Sign Language is not English,” Bliss said. “It’s a different language, and so the English vocabulary for a deaf person is limited. As you converse back and forth, having to write things down is very limited. Deaf people often have to rely on a friend or family member who was hearing and who could interpret for them or schedule an appointment and find an interpreter that was available to come to the bank with them.”

The Deaf Link technology currently can be found at Frost Bank’s branch locations at 1300 Summit Ave. in Fort Worth, 3801 Matlock Road in Arlington and 1240 Keller Parkway in Keller, Bliss said.

Frost is strategically placing the technology in branches at the center and outskirts of large cities to make access easier, Bliss said. The company has plans to expand the technology into its Dallas locations in the future.

“This made a financial institution accessible where a deaf person can walk in and independently handle their finances,” said Deaf Link CEO Kay Chiodo. “A hearing person doesn’t have to bring a friend to a bank and tell their friend all their personal financial issues. You’re getting access to a certified interpreter without having to bring a family member or friend in that you may not want to know your financial background. This way it’s confidential. Frost Bank is such a champion to this segment of our population because they are giving them a higher standard of independence to be able to go into a bank and talk face to face with a banking employee, it’s awesome.”

Frost Bank also is in the process of teaching its employees basic sign language phrases such as “welcome,” “hello,” “thank you” and “goodbye,” Bliss said.

“Before we opened the doors we wanted to get them ready, and teaching them very basic signs just opens the doors to where a deaf customer can feel free to talk to this person one on one about their banking needs,” Bliss said. The technology “allows us to open a whole new service to the deaf community, one that we were never able to do before.”

For Bliss, the fact that Deaf Link’s technology is creating independence for Frost’s deaf customers gives her hope about her son’s future.

By bringing this technology into its banking centers, Frost will dramatically increase its customer base, Chiodo said.

“Ninety percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents who often have hearing family members,” Chiodo said. “If you have a 3-year-old who’s deaf and you’re a hearing mom you know your son’s not going to open a checking account at Frost, but wouldn’t you have a tendency to lean to a bank that was making the world better for your child? This is a huge market that they’re touching. And, needless to say, if you’re deaf and there’s an accessible bank, which one’s going to catch your eye?”