Accessibility

Learn how we make online banking accessible to our vision-impaired customers.

Web accessibility for customers with disability

We’re committed to making the content of this site accessible to the widest possible audience, including those:
 

  • Using assistive technology such as screen readers and screen magnifiers
  • Who are unable to use the mouse
  • Dependent on the accessibility features of their web browser.


We strive to conform to the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and to comply with Level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, Version 2.0. Our site depends on the use of JavaScript for security purposes and some other functions.

How our vision-impaired customers can sign in using assistive technology:

NB: This guide aims to incorporate the ways both screen reading and magnification users engage with the keyboard (virtual and physical).
 

  1. Key in your customer number using your computer keyboard in the “Enter your Customer ID” box.
  2. Before entering your password on the on-screen keyboard, you will be prompted with a check box option for using our “Remember customer ID” function. This will save you having to type your customer number in every time when you visit our site, for security reasons if you're using a public or shared device we don't recommend selecting this option.
  3. Depending on your choice of assistive technology, use the mouse, tab or arrow keys to navigate and select the letters or numbers to enter your password using our on screen keyboard. To navigate backwards hold down the “shift” key then tab to the next character, or use the up or down arrow keys.
  4. Use your mouse, enter or spacebar to select the appropriate key. Some screen readers in certain browser versions will reset to the top of the sign in page after pressing the enter or spacebar.
  5. After you have entered your password, hold down Alt and “S” to sign in, or tab or arrow to the “sign in” button and select that option.

Sign in issue impacting Internet Explorer 10 and Internet Explorer 11 assistive technology users

If you use the keyboard (TAB keys and spacebar) and/or assistive technology to enter your Online Banking password, you may have noticed that after selecting the first character of your password, the focus moves to the top of the page, away from the online keypad.

This issue is currently under investigation. Until it’s resolved, we recommend you change your browser settings to allow the Westpac website to be accessed using Compatibility View. Simply follow the steps below:
 

  1. Go to the Westpac Online Banking sign in page.
  2. Press the ALT key + T (tools menu).
  3. Type B (compatibility view settings) and press enter.
  4. Select the TAB key and press enter (add button).
  5. Select TAB twice and press enter.
  6. Close and reopen Internet Explorer.
  7. Return to the Online Banking sign in page and attempt to sign in again.

Online Banking short cut

For customers using adaptive technology (like JAWS) , we've included an Online Banking short cut where you won't have to search for the sign in button.

Here's how: Once you've entered your customer ID and password as normal, press and hold the 'Alt ' key, then press 'S' as well.

This directly signs you in (JAWS will read that you're being signed in). To help remember, think of 'S' standing for 'sign in'.

Images

All images contain alternative (ALT) text. This ALT attribute is displayed when the site is visited with images "off" and voiced by screen readers. The null (or empty) ALT attribute used for ‘non-functional or brand-type’ images should be ignored by screen readers.

Tables and forms

Forms and tables use accessibility features that enable them to be used with screen readers.

JavaScript

The JavaScript used has been designed to be accessible to most assistive technologies in common use today. With a few pages however, JavaScript is used to show or hide portions of some pages. When these pages are accessed with devices that do support this function, all information will be presented.

PDF

For technical reasons (and to meet some legal requirements), our website contains a number of PDFs. Where possible, we provide a HTML alternative. The Adobe Acrobat Reader (http://www.adobe.com/products/reader) is required to read PDFs on the site. The Reader can be downloaded from the Adobe site, which also contains instructions for installing the software on your computer.

Converting PDFs

The Adobe website also contains a tool and instructions for converting PDFs into web pages online (http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/access_onlinetools.html).  It works with most, but not all PDFs. However, the conversion can take some minutes.

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