Sorry if this is off topic, but I don't think it is. I wanted to share
some good news about accessibility.
Last year, the question went around this list about which tax software
was accessible with JAWS. At the time, I was working with two products,
MyFreeTaxes.com for home users and Taxwise Online for tax pros and
volunteers. Both have made improvements in accessibility this year, so I
thought I'd share, especially because this list had a lot to do with the
improvements in Taxwise Online. I'm really excited about this, and I
hope it helps you.
www.MyFreeTaxes.com allows you to use H&R Block online software to
prepare your federal and up to three state returns completely free of
charge, provided your income was $60,000 or less in 2014. It's a
partnership between United Way, Goodwill International, and the National
Disability Institute, and is sponsored by the Walmart Foundation. This
is solid software that does more than just your basic EZ return. (I did
a Schedule C return last night.) It has been accessible since I started
using it, except for the dreaded captcha at the very end of the filing
process. I raised this concern with the MyFreeTaxes partnership, and
they addressed that concern with H&R Block. I'm happy to report that
this year, there is an Audio Captcha which is actually understandable to
the human ear. I used it. It worked. Using nothing more than a web
browser and JAWS 15, I filed a return without anyone having to be
present. You can too! I would assume this same audio captcha was also
added to H&R Block's paid online software, although I haven't used it.
Since My Free Taxes is free, and my income is way below $60,000, I just
use that.
Taxwise Online is more of a commercial product used by professional tax
preparers, as well as volunteers in the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance
and Tax Counseling for the Elderly programs. Last year, the folks at CCH
Small Firm Services saw my post on this very JAWS list complaining about
the inaccessibility of the tax forms in their product, and they called
me at work. We had a conference call. They showed me that they had a
version of the product that I didn't know about which they believed was
508 compliant. The software menus and interview were and always had been
accessible, but when it came to the tax forms, It still wasn't even
close, although they had been assured by someone that it was fine. The
good news is the folks on this conference call listened to me and took
me seriously. They went back to the drawing board. While it has a few
odd behaviors, it's leaps and bounds ahead of where it was last year,
and I give CCH Small Firm Services a lot of credit for fixing it. I've
been pleasantly surprised. I was even able to use the new Affordable
Care Act worksheet and forms in my training classes this year. Again, it
worked with JAWS 15. I haven't tried with other versions or other screen
readers. Taxwise Online only works with Internet Explorer and Google
Chrome, and we know how well Chrome works with JAWS, so I've only used
it with Internet Explorer. Last year, I tried with NVDA, but it wasn't
nearly as successful. I haven't tried with the 2014 software though;
I've just stuck with JAWS and it's been good.
So two big touchdowns for accessibility in the tax software world, I'm
proud to report. The first is for home users, and the second is for tax
pros and certified volunteers. I hope these developments help
someone--maybe even you! I'm very happy about them.
For what it's worth,
--
Brad Martin
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
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