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External Consultations: Client Focus Groups

In November 2022, RoDG conducted eight research focus groups across Canada with 10 participating members in each group.

Study participants were recruited to provide perspectives from a diverse set of disabilities including:

Physical

(including mobility and dexterity)

Cognitive

(including neurodiversity, mental health and learning disabilities)

Sensory

(vision, hearing and speech)

Six of the eight studies focused on a particular RBC service or offering:

Mortgage pre-approval process

Opening a personal bank account

In-branch account switch

Signing up for the Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP)

Using the RBC Mobile app

Personal banking at RBC

  • Two studies focused on personal banking experiences across other Canadian financial institutions and the contents of their accessibility pages.
  • In each study, 10 participants were asked to use a specific RBC service or offering and anonymously share their user experience.
  • For studies that included a comparison of product/service offerings and a purchase, participants were given one to two weeks to complete their activities and were asked to take notes about their experience.
  • For studies intended to track user experience over time, such as the RBC Mobile app study, participants were given three weeks to use the app. Participants were asked to keep a diary about their experiences throughout this period, as well as attend a three-hour focus group to provide their feedback.

The following accommodations were made available to study participants:

ASL interpreters

Typing of all questions in chat boxes and management of chat for comments

Auto-captioning

One-on-one interviews for those who preferred non-group settings.

  • General barriers identified on RBC’s public-facing websites include:

    • Screen reader compatibility
    • Information overload (challenging for those with cognitive disabilities)
    • Lack of accessible card features (challenging for those with visual impairment)
    • Perceived attitudes of some customer service advisors
    • Some physical accessibility challenges at retail branches
  • Notably, participants had a favourable view of RBC’s Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP) product offering, mobile banking app, website and opening an account process.

Employee Consultations

  • In alignment with the principle “nothing without us”, and to have a clear understanding of the potential barriers employees with disabilities are experiencing, we held employee consultations in 2022 and into 2023.
  • We conducted a survey that was open to all employees, and received over 1,600 responses, which provided insights into how to identify, prevent and remove potential barriers in employment.
  • Two virtual consultation sessions held in March and April 2023 helped us better understand the barriers raised and explore potential solutions.

Internal Subject Matter Experts

  • Members and partners of the Accessibility Office held conversations with: (i) Internal subject matter experts in various functional groups; (ii) Employee resource groups (ERGs); (iii) Corporate Citizenship teams on the key priority areas, which helped us assess our current practices and how we can continue to remove barriers for Persons with Disabilities.

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements


This RBC Accessibility Plan (Plan) may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of certain securities laws, including the “safe harbour” provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and any applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements in this Plan may include, but are not limited to, statements related to certain social and governance-related objectives, vision, commitments and goals of Royal Bank of Canada (RBC, we, us or our), including our objectives, vision, commitments and goals related to the identification, prevention and removal of accessibility barriers for persons with disabilities in relevant areas identified in the Accessible Canada Act (ACA). The forward-looking information contained in this Plan is presented for the purpose of assisting our stakeholders in understanding the ways we intend to address accessibility barriers and pursue opportunities to enhance accessibility for persons with disabilities and to meet relevant ACA requirements, as well as our related social and governance-related objectives, vision, commitments and goals, and may not be appropriate for other purposes. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as “believe”, “expect”, “expectation”, “aim”, “achieve”, “intend”, “commit”, “goal”, “plan”, “strive” and “objective”, and similar expressions of future or conditional verbs such as “will”, “may”, “might”, “should”, “could” or “would”.


By their very nature, forward-looking statements require us to make assumptions and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties, which give rise to the possibility that our expectations or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that our assumptions may not be correct, and that our social and governance-related visions, commitments, goals and objectives will not be achieved. We caution readers not to place undue reliance on these statements as a number of risk factors could cause our actual results to differ materially from the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements.


These factors – many of which are beyond our control and the effects of which can be difficult to predict – include but are not limited to: our ability to successfully implement various initiatives throughout the company under expected time frames, the risk that initiatives will not be completed within a specified period or at all or with the results or outcomes as originally expected or anticipated by RBC, our ability to enhance accessibility in RBC’s business operations, including RBC’s workspaces and retail branches, feasibility of incorporating accessibility into our information and communication technologies, the legal and regulatory environment, and regulatory compliance (which could lead to us being subject to various legal and regulatory proceedings, the potential outcome of which could include regulatory restrictions, penalties and fines), strategic, reputation, competitive, and systemic risks and other risks. We caution that the foregoing list of risk factors is not exhaustive and other factors could also adversely affect our results. Additional factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations in such forward-looking statements can be found in the risk sections of our Annual Report for the year ended October 31, 2022 (2022 Annual Report) and the Risk management section of our Quarterly Report for the three-month period ended April 30, 2023 (Q2 2023 Report to Shareholders). When relying on our forward-looking statements to make decisions with respect to us, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events.


Except as required by law, RBC does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time by us or on our behalf.


All references to websites are for your information only. The content of any websites referred to in this Plan, including via a website link, and any other websites they refer to are not incorporated by reference in, and do not form part of, this Plan.