As the payments industry races to innovate, one critical factor is being left behind: accessibility. In this Q&A, Project Nemo co-founders Kris Foster and Joanne Dewar share how their mission is driving real change by putting disability inclusion at the heart of the payments conversation.
What’s the story behind Project Nemo? What inspired its launch?
Project Nemo: driving real change
Project Nemo began with a realisation that’s hard to ignore: whilst payments has been evolving at speed, and the newer digital methods, products and services benefit many, ensuring these new digital payments were fully accessible for everyone has been largely overlooked.
Ways of working with cash, in branch, in store have been adapted over thousands of years to work for all.
Conversely, many new digital first products or delivery channels have developed with too many assumptions about the needs of their customers, with accessibility needs being considered expensive and optional edge cases in a feature filled product roadmap.
Further, depending on source, whilst there are 20-24% of the population across Europe with a disability, it doesn’t feel like we have anywhere near that representation in our industry, so there are insufficient voices to call out the need to address.
Isolated speaking opportunities were met with such passionate response that we decided to turn this into our mission.
Project Nemo was established to ignite conversation on this topic, highlight the impact and encourage companies of all sizes and stages to lean in, commit to progressing their disability inclusion journeys and showcase their improvements to encourage others.
What key milestones has Project Nemo achieved so far?
In just 10 months since we launched, Project Nemo has been able to do what many thought impossible – bring disability inclusion and accessibility to the forefront of the payments conversation.
We’ve spoken at over 30 events, created a powerful micro film series to highlight specifically some of the payments pain points experienced by people with disabilities, and a thought leadership podcast series.
We have encouraged our industry partners to consider how to make our events more accessible and established new disability inclusion awards.
In the coming weeks we have a couple of major partnerships to announce which is going to help us scale our impact.
How is Project Nemo shaping the payments industry, particularly for merchants?
Most of the time, it is not that people ever intended to exclude people with disabilities from their product or platform. They simply didn’t know that any barriers existed.
By bringing the conversation to the table, Project Nemo is helping the whole industry to stop and think about accessibility.
How well do you know your customer. Or your potential customer, if only your website enabled e-readers or your infographics had alt text descriptions.
Breaking taboos, bring disability lived experience to the table and signposting easy ways of starting to engage on the topic have all helped starting to mobilise action.
Speaking to each department, we are creating resources to help product, tech, marketing, legal, and importantly, the business case of the potential addressable market, known as the purple pound.
It’s an opportunity to build loyalty, trust, and a brand that stands for something more than just business. Accessibility isn’t a trend—it’s the future of payments, and Project Nemo is showing merchants how to lead that change.
Why are accessibility and inclusion crucial for the future of payments? How can companies contribute?
Whether in store or online, we all expect to be able to make payments, as independently as we are able.
We talk of the process of making a payment feeling seemless or invisible and it is essential that we provide the same experience to those with a disability.
This is central to what is called the social model of disability – which is that it is the environment that disables – as opposed to the medical model.
If we don’t call out the need to ensure that payments are accessible, we are in danger of creating new forms of financial exclusion, even in the name of financially inclusive offerings.
The beauty of leaning into accessibility is that more often than not the improvements benefit everyone.
What role does the European Accessibility Act play in Project Nemo’s mission?
The European Accessibility Act is a crucial step in the right direction.
Coming into force this summer, it ensures that there is focus on at least a minimum standard of building products and services work for everyone.
Whilst outside of the EU, UK companies should also consider these requirements very carefully as they are likely to need to ensure compliance for any European offering and won’t want the cost or effort of retrofitting to additional standards when it is so much easier and cheaper to build to a single set of requirements from the outset.
Can you share a success story or example of Project Nemo’s impact?
There have been more tears at Project Nemo events and at our stand than ever before in payments. And that is because our call to action resonates on a deeply personal level with so many.
That’s the reality of 23% of the population having a disability. Most families are impacted in some way.
And it is a relief for people to see the needs of their loved ones finally being brought to the fore and addressed.
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