As part of ongoing efforts to promote financial empowerment and improve accessibility, the Oregon College Savings Plan (OCSP), a program of the Oregon State Treasury, today announced the launch of their newly redesigned website. The celebratory event comes on the heels of reaching a milestone $3 billion saved for education and training and just in time for OCSP’s 23-year anniversary.
"We are delighted to introduce the Oregon College Savings Plan’s newly redesigned website to our current and future savers," said State Treasurer Tobias Read. “The new website was designed to be accessible and understandable to everyone, regardless of the language they speak or their level of experience with investing. We’re proud to break down barriers and help Oregon families make informed decisions about their futures.”
The new website was designed with several key improvements in mind, all of which aim to enhance the online user experience. One of the most significant changes is the responsive design, ensuring that the website is accessible and user-friendly on all devices, particularly mobile phones, which can serve as the primary computers for people in many communities across the state.
Also, with increased accessibility in mind, the site offers translation into the seven most commonly spoken languages in Oregon—Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Russian, Korean, Ukrainian, and Arabic—and viewing in fourteen languages total; allowing users to access content in their native language. In its new form, the website maintains high standards of ADA compliance, in service to people experiencing a visual disability.
“By offering a seamless experience across languages and devices with our new website, the Oregon College Savings Plan aims to empower underserved communities and propel them to early action in saving for education and training after high school,” said Ryan Mann, Executive Director of the Oregon Treasury Savings Network. “We believe that accessibility is not just a nicety, but a necessity for creating a truly inclusive online experience for all Oregonians.”
The user-friendly interface and streamlined navigation of the new website make it easier for Oregon families to learn about the benefits of saving for education after high school with OCSP, and to sign up for an account. The site includes helpful resources and tools, such as a simple-to-use savings calculator to help families with decision-making. The experience of navigating the investment portfolio options has also undergone a refresh, with easy-to-understand snapshots of each offering, and intuitive filtering capabilities based on the beneficiary’s expected enrollment year in higher education, or their investment timeline.
A standout feature of the new website is the gifting program, which demonstrates how friends and family can contribute to a loved one's OCSP account with ease. The variety of community gifting opportunities highlighted on the website, including the ability to recycle and automatically save for education with BottleDrop, reflects OCSP’s commitment to making saving for education and training a collaborative effort with a low barrier to entry.
This recent series of exciting milestones, follow a year of strong performance for OCSP, which brought in more than $262 million in contributions to more than 138,000 accounts from across the state. Visit the new Oregon College Savings Plan website today at www.oregoncollegesavings.com to explore the improved features and start saving for your loved one's future education.
