In order to do so, Gref donned a special GERT aging simulation suit in order to act the part of a handicapped person with a monthly income of 30,000 rubles (about $467) who came to a Sberbank branch office in order to get a 100,000 rubles loan (about $1,556) to purchase a wheelchair.
After completing the procedure, Gref took off the suit and advised the employee who serviced him to try it on; he further explained that he was barely able to see the figures that the bank employee was showing him on the monitor, and was barely able to hear his explanations.
All in all, Gref surmised, there’s still room for improvement, according to RIA Novosti.
"I believe that all employees who work with handicapped persons should spend some time wearing such a suit in order to understand what it feels like. Experience like this helps develop empathy," he said.
Gref added that Sberbank has a branch called Special Bank dedicated to developing and adapting the bank’s products and services for handicapped people.
"We have about 12 million handicapped people in the country, not to mention about 40 million people with limited mobility. And according to experts, most of them are Sberbank clients. Over recent years we’ve made considerable strides in adapting our branch offices in order to better accommodate the needs of handicapped persons," he explained.
A similar experiment is also expected to be conducted in Sberbank offices in St. Petersburg.
