Member Article

Caspian Insurance supporting deaf community in part of accessibility pledge

Life insurance broker, Caspian Insurance, is participating in Purple Tuesday to offer disabled customers fully accessible support services 365 days a year.

Purple Tuesday 2021 - a change programme for organisations of all sizes and all sectors - and Caspian have the shared goal of improving the customer experience for disabled people seeking life insurance and critical illness cover.

Disabled people seeking life insurance advice have previously found it challenging due to barriers in communication. Caspian believes in providing an equal service for all and has kicked things off by updating its website to offer fully inclusive communications for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

This includes a video call service to assist lip reading customers, while Caspian’s director of people, Emily Behan, has learned some sign language in order to produce video content explaining the services available.

Emily Behan, director of people at Caspian Insurance, said: “Diversity and inclusion is extremely important to us, so we are delighted to be leading the way in offering accessible communications services to all of our customers, living with or without disabilities. We understand that talking about life insurance can be difficult enough as it can be an emotional subject, so we are embracing technology and our work with Purple Tuesday to help offer equal access to our services.”

As part of its future plans to further help customers with disabilities, Caspian will be gathering data and customer feedback to determine what kind of improvements are desired. The broker is dedicated to revising its communications to ensure that everyone receives the highest standard of service. This includes liaising with the UK’s leading providers to supply documents in braille or audio, along with providing staff training on helping customers with their mental health. The goal is ensuring that the process of setting up a policy is as stress-free and easy to understand as possible for all.

Caspian has noted that the process of ensuring each disability is accounted for can take time, and wants to lead the way within the broker sector to ensure that this standard is met. In order to achieve this goal, Caspian treats each customer as an individual, taking into account their unique needs and learning from the incredible resources available to them, such as Purple Tuesday.

Training and awareness sessions are also being rolled out across the entire team to better understand disabilities, both hidden and visible.

In the UK alone, the so-called ‘Purple Pound’ – the spending power of disabled people and their families – is worth £274 billion and is estimated to be rising by 14 percent per year, yet less than 10 percent of organisations have a targeted plan to access the disability market.

Purple Tuesday is about creating a step-change improvement in the awareness of the value and needs of disabled customers. It is about making the customer experience accessible. Participating organisations, like Caspian Insurance, make public commitments to ensure sustainable changes are made. This will result in the opening up of products and services to the disability market.

Charlene Overend, Head of Business Partnerships at Purple Tuesday, said: “We are delighted that Caspian Insurance is participating in Purple Tuesday and has made commitments to improve the accessibility of their products and services, ensuring that disabled customers have fair and equal access to life insurance.  We look forward to working with the team on their disability inclusion journey, improving the experiences of disabled customers 365 days a year.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Lucy Yates .