Locked Out By Design: Financial Systems and the People They Were Never Designed For

Join us in another LTW Fringe event online on the 11th June. Hosted by Policy Connect and RIX Inclusive Research in partnership with Tech For Disability

Event poster image with yellow title for Locked Out By Design on a grey background and logos for the partners
LTW26 Fringe: Locked Out by Design: Financial Systems and the People They Were Never Built For · Luma
Hosted by Policy Connect and RIX Research & Media at the University of East London, in partnership with Tech For Disability The UK is moving rapidly toward a…

The London Tech Week Fringe Event Page:

Locked Out by Design: Financial Systems and the People They Were Never Built For
<p><em>Hosted by Policy Connect and RIX Research & Media at the University of East London, in partnership with Tech For Disability</em></p> <p>The UK is moving rapidly toward a cashless, digital-first financial system. But that system was built on a set of assumptions — that everyone can prove their identity through standard documentation, navigate abstract numerical interfaces, and manage money independently — that exclude a significant portion of the population by default.</p> <p>For learning disabled people, the result is not inconvenience. It is exclusion from one of society’s most basic functions: the ability to hold, manage, and spend your own money. The barriers are not primarily technological — they are structural, embedded in security frameworks, identity verification processes, and product design decisions that treat a narrow set of cognitive capabilities as universal.</p> <p>Making an app “accessible” does not fix this. The challenge is systemic, and it requires the financial services industry, technology providers, policymakers, and people with lived experience to be in the same room — asking harder questions about who the system was designed for, and what it would take to genuinely redesign it.</p> <p>This panel brings together voices from policy, banking, technology, research, and lived experience to examine what financial inclusion truly requires when you start from the people the current system reaches least. Because the evidence is clear: when you design to reach the furthest, you build something that works better for everyone.</p>

More Information:

The UK is moving rapidly toward a cashless, digital-first financial system. But that system was built on a set of assumptions — that everyone can prove their identity through standard documentation, navigate abstract numerical interfaces, and manage money independently — that exclude a significant portion of the population by default.

For learning disabled people, the result is not inconvenience. It is exclusion from one of society's most basic functions: the ability to hold, manage, and spend your own money. The barriers are not primarily technological — they are structural, embedded in security frameworks, identity verification processes, and product design decisions that treat a narrow set of cognitive capabilities as universal.

Making an app "accessible" does not fix this. The challenge is systemic, and it requires the financial services industry, technology providers, policymakers, and people with lived experience to be in the same room — asking harder questions about who the system was designed for, and what it would take to genuinely redesign it.

This panel brings together voices from policy, banking, technology, research, and lived experience to examine what financial inclusion truly requires when you start from the people the current system reaches least. Because the evidence is clear: when you design to reach the furthest, you build something that works better for everyone.

Speakers

Headshot photo of event panellist Robert McLaren with event title Locked Out By Design on a background of money and logos of the partners and event data and time.
Robert McLaren, Policy Connect
Headshot photo of event panellist Rebecca Brindley with event title Locked Out By Design on a background of money and logos of the partners and event data and time.
Rebecca Brindley, NatWest
Headshot photo of event panellist Doctor Paul Watts with event title Locked Out By Design on a background of money and logos of the partners and event data and time.
Paul Watts, Rix Inclusive Research
Headshot photo of event panellist Roselyn Weinberg with event title Locked Out By Design on a background of money and logos of the partners and event data and time.
Roselyn Weinberg, Rix Inclusive Research
Headshot photo of event panellist Ismail Kaji with event title Locked Out By Design on a background of money and logos of the partners and event data and time.
Ismail Kaji, Mencap
Headshot photo of event panellist Marc Goblot with event title Locked Out By Design on a background of money and logos of the partners and event data and time.
Marc Goblot, Digital Diversity Lab, Tech For Disability

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