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Building a More Accessible CCU for Everyone 

Building a More Accessible CCU for Everyone

On August 19, the Columbia Credit Union team stepped away from our regular work to complete Autism Friendly Business training with the Thompson Center for Autism & Neurodevelopment at the University of Missouri. 

We are incredibly proud to be the first financial institution to earn the Thompson Center’s Autism Friendly Business designation. More importantly, we are grateful for the opportunity to learn how we can better serve, support, and work alongside autistic members, employees, and others in our community. 

This training reflects something we believe deeply: everyone deserves to feel welcomed, respected, and supported when they walk through our doors. 

Awareness, accessibility and adaptability 

Our training focused on the “3 A’s” of an Autism Friendly Business: 

  • Awareness: Understanding autism, neurodiversity and the wide range of experiences within the autistic community. 
  • Accessibility: Creating an environment where people feel accepted, supported, and able to participate. 
  • Adaptability: Offering flexible approaches, services and processes based on what each person needs to be successful. 

We learned practical ways to make interactions more comfortable and understandable. These include using clear and concrete language, setting expectations in advance, allowing additional processing time, offering different ways to communicate and being mindful of sensory needs. 

The training also encouraged us to ask an important question more often: What does this person need to be successful? 

That question is especially important when supporting autistic members, but it is also a meaningful way to approach every person we serve. 

Accessibility is good customer service 

Although the training centered on supporting autistic individuals, the lessons were also valuable for customer service and leadership training. 

Each person communicates, processes information and experiences their surroundings differently. A busy lobby, an unfamiliar financial process, an unexpected change or a conversation filled with technical language can create barriers that may not be apparent to someone else. 

Great service means paying attention to those differences without judgment. It means communicating clearly, checking for understanding and remaining flexible when our usual approach does not meet someone’s needs. 

The employee-support portion of the training reinforced many of those same principles for our leaders: provide clear expectations, give direct but kind feedback, explain the “why,” establish concrete next steps and never assume that silence means understanding. 

These practices help us better support neurodiverse employees while also creating a clearer, healthier, and more supportive workplace for our entire team. 

Accessibility creates opportunity 

Financial services can open doors, but only when people can comfortably access and understand them. A process that feels routine to one person may feel confusing, overwhelming, or inaccessible to another. 

We believe accessibility is an important part of creating opportunities for all. That belief connects directly to the credit union philosophy of people helping people and to our commitment to embrace, empower and enhance the lives of our members. 

It also reflects the values that guide our work: 

  • Care means responding to individual needs with empathy and dignity. 
  • Member-Focused means shaping the experience around the person instead of expecting everyone to fit one standard approach. 
  • Guidance means communicating clearly and helping members move forward with confidence. 
  • Ownership means taking responsibility for recognizing and reducing barriers. 
  • Integrity means ensuring our commitment to inclusion is reflected in our everyday actions. 

What comes next 

Completing the training was an important milestone, but it was only the beginning. 

As we put what we learned into practice, you can expect to see new supports appearing throughout our branch and website. These may include clearer visual information, resources explaining what to expect during a visit, sensory supports, and additional ways to navigate or communicate during a financial service experience. 

Some accommodation will be visible to everyone. Others may be based on the needs of an individual member. We will continue listening, learning, and working with the Thompson Center as we develop these resources. 

If there is something we can do to make your experience at Columbia Credit Union more comfortable or accessible, please ask us. We may be able to provide a quieter space, additional processing time, clearer written or visual information, another way to communicate or greater flexibility during your visit. 

You know what supports you best. We are here to listen and work with you. 

An inclusive community is a stronger community. Becoming an Autism Friendly Business is one more way the Columbia Credit Union is working to ensure more people feel embraced, respected and empowered to pursue financial opportunity. 

Learn more about the Thompson Center’s Autism Friendly Business program. 

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