Thank you for your comments. I think it is great if you continue to
communicate with whoever you know at Intuit. But it is also
important that our collective voices still go to Mark and the
President's office at Intuit where I have already began the effort.
Yes, I have spoken with Mark and other staffers at the President's
office of Intuit. They specifically gave me the [email protected]
e-mail and address our comments to Mark at the president's office. I
have spoken with him on the phone and via e-mail. Even though the
e-mail appears generic, it will get directly to Mark at the
president's office. I will leave the contents of your comments to
your discretion. However, I never once promised them that Intuit
will make a financial gain by doing this. I specifically spoke to
them about the accessibility needs of blind and visually impaired
users. Mark and all of the other staffers at the president's office
were open and enthusiastic about the issue. So all I am asking of
the community of the blind and visually impaired persons is to
recognize the need to come together and create a critical mass that
cannot be ignored. Our individual needs remain within the province
of each one's individual prerogatives. the relevance of our common
action is that, today we make requests about Intuit's
products. Tomorrow we will pick up the next cause. the point is not
quite whether I will or will not use a specific product. Each blind
and visually impaired person should never forget that our collective
voice is the strength by which we secure critical services and
various enabling advancements out of the market. God bless and let
us come together and make our needs known by puting a healthy
pressure on the market which is otherwise ignorant or uninformed.
Best regards
Solomon.
At 09:53 AM 7/31/2010, you wrote:
solomon,
You likely didn't hear from me about this because I abandoned using
TurboTax this past year after using it for over a
decade. I think that this is a worthy effort and I will certainly
write a note.
I gather that you had some sort of personal contact with someone and
that is great. It concerns me a little that the e-
mail addresses given seem to be quite generic. My concern arises
from the fact that over the past decade, I have
provided feedback on their web site and through surveys after
completing my taxes. I have always included my e-mail
address and have never once received a response. Very early on, I
did have some correspondence with someone at
TurboTax who seemed very interested. He noted that they did not
change their user interface very often preferring to
keep it relatively stable. However, he assured me that our needs
would be taken into account when changes were
made. As you know, they have been making changes over the past
several years, and I have yet to see a single
change that helps us and some have made our use more difficult.
I think we need to consider our approach very carefully. It is
certainly a good idea to show them that there are
interested people who will buy their product. However, we also need
to emphasize that this should not be that
expensive in the long run, that incorporating our needs and even
needs of other disabled persons into their designs
rather than trying to do it after-the-fact makes sense. We will
probably not prevail by making them think that fixing this
will make them tons of money because it probably won't. Noting that
other companies are already incorporating
accessibility might be helpful, though. Also, emphasizing that we
already use many off-the-shelf products would be
good.
If you get a specific name at any point and it would be helpful to
redirect mail to that person, please let us know. The
"WECARE" address is likely high volume, and I am uneasy that
messages there will not get filtered to the right people,
but it is worth a try. Were you given any instructions as to how to
indicate that messages should be directed to "Mark"
or to the Office of the President? What I mean is whether this
should be done in the subject or in the body?
Best regards,
Steve Jacobson
On Fri, 30 Jul 2010 11:05:08 -0400, Solomon Mekonnen wrote:
>Attention all,
>Several weeks ago I posted a message on this listserv regarding
>TurboTax's inaccessibility for blind and visually impaired users who
>wish to do their own taxes independently. I received only one
>response from Bernie Perella who shared a valuable information on his
>own experience with the continued inaccessibility of the TurboTax
>software. According to his e-mail TurboTax became progressively
>inaccessible starting with the 1997 version. The 1996 version of the
>TurboTax software was the most accessible to date. He also indicated
>that some users feel that the online version is somewhat more
>accessible than the version produced on disc but not practical enough.
>I shared Bernie's information with Intuit and requested that the
>office of the president of Intuit invest a serious and meaningful
>effort to make TurboTax accessible as early as next year. They
>informed me that they would like to see the level of interest or the
>size of the service target to warrant a focused effort. Ergo, the
>reason for this e-mail.
>I am asking each and every blind or visually impaired person who
>would like to do his or her own taxes for the cost of the software to
>send feedback to Intuit at the following e-mail: "[email protected]"
>attention Mark or the Office of the president. Or, you may also
>access the feedback link on the intuit website, "www.intuit.com.
>Please make your e-mail informative and friendly. The purpose is to
>make Intuit see the legitimacy of our request. There is much greater
>strength and persuasive power in amiable communication than an
>emotionally charged outburst of potent expression.
>I would also like to solicit the help of GWMicro's Executive Office
>to communicate with Intuit on a corporate level regarding the same
>issue. You may also communicate with other blind and visually
>impaired individuals who do not receive messages from this
>listserv. I think it might be helpful to contact advocacy agencies
>or such organizations as NCB or NFB to influence Intuit's efforts on
>the same issue.
>I am just trying to involve every one interested to show Intuit that
>the request is worthwhile. Please join me if you feel Paying H&R
>Block exhorbitant fees should not be the only option we have
>especially at the time when technology has made incredible advances
>in software accessibility facilities. Last year I had to pay H&R
>Bloc $175.00 besides the check I wrote to Uncle Sam. I could have
>put those same funds to some other use if I had the ability to do my
>own taxes.
>I thoroughly understand that there are free services available for
>filing taxes. I also realize that some of us have spouses, children,
>or friends who might lend us a hand in filing our taxes. But won't
>you be interested in engaging your good offices in the effort to
>convince industry to take our needs seriously? If Intuit responds to
>our request in one area, it should not be difficult to see what it
>might be able to do for us in the remaining software packages such as
>QuickBooks and webstore merchendising services. The idea is, let us
>come together and form a critical mass that cannot be ignored.
>Best regards
>Solomon.
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