Accessible Taxes? A Blind Consumer's Experience With the US Tax System
By Bohman, Paul; WebAIM,Publication Date: April 2004
Article discusses the accessibility of tax software and online services such as TurboTax Premier, TurboTax Online, TaxACT Online, and H & R Block Online for people who are blind or have low vision and use screen readers. One person who used JAWS for Windows attempted to use these programs, and yielded extremely poor results. When attempting to use TurboTax Premier, the only items on the screen that were compatible with JAWS were the buttons that allowed the user to progress from page to page; when using the online version of TurboTax, the text instructions were accessible, but the buttons were not. Similar problems were encountered when using TaxACT and H & R Block’s services. The Internal Revenue Service’s web site was much more accessible, yet there was so much information on each page that JAWS could barely keep up. The author contends that the software creators could overcome most of the accessibility problems encountered in these programs if they implemented simple accessibility standards such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines of the W3C or Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.
Assistive Products Discussed: JAWS FOR WINDOWS
Published by: Center for Persons with Disabilities (CPD) (Website:http://www.cpd.usu.edu)
Link to text: http://www.webaim.org/techniques/articles/taxes
