Melissa Gordon-Cooke’s small business “Mels Munchies” has been operating for several years now.

One of Mel’s favourite parts of any workday is counting the earnings and banking her proceeds.

Over quite a few months, Mel slowly developed a rapport with bank staff at the Strath Village Branch of the Commonwealth Bank. Mel’s confidence to bank independently continued to increase, and Mel especially enjoyed using the automatic coin deposit machine.

However, a small hitch became obvious. The bank had located a small fixed table adjacent to the machine. This table was a convenient place for ambulant customers to place items but made it impossible for Mel to position her wheelchair close enough to the device to reach it without some form of hand on hand support from staff.

As a result, Mel started asking to move to another bank. With support and encouragement, Mel explained to the bank staff what the problem was and even had a face-to-face chat with the Branch Manager.

Several weeks later, Mel entered the bank expecting to have the “same old problem” only to discover that the table was relocated – solving her problems of access to do her business banking.