Re: Is This the Future...: http://turbotaxweb.intuit.com

[Mark Hemmings <mark.hemmings@studentmail.newcastle.edu.au>]

Its awful.  with those sorts of links, one can't even contact them to tell
them what an inaccessible page they have designed.

Mark.
At 02:51 15/01/00 -0800, you wrote:
>Hi All,
>
>The past few years have been witness to helpful advances in web 
>accessibility for people with disabilities.  On the technical side screen 
>readers and web browsers are getting much better at presenting a very 
>functional and friendly web.  Quality guidelines on how to construct web 
>sites have also made progress thanks to efforts by many associated with the 
>W3C and similar groups around the world.  However at times I can't avoid 
>the feeling that those of us interested in web access are a bit like the 
>people who set sail on the Titanic so many years ago.
>
>Take a browse to <http://turbotaxweb.intuit.com> and you might see what I 
>mean.  This is Intuit's online version of their popular Turbo Tax product.
>
>The combination of design and technology that Intuit is using virtually 
>eliminates any of the advances made in web accessibility over the past few 
>years.  Those using screen readers and web browsers incorporating 
>Microsoft's Active Accessibility might as well turn that feature 
>off.  Aside from a few links to leave the Tax return and such, the Online 
>Turbo Tax site does not use any links that you can use to navigate the
program.
>
>The opening screen of the web site is just one example of what can be found 
>throughout Turbo Tax Online.  You are asked whether you want to start a new 
>return, continue and existing one or transfer data from last year.  However 
>the only links one finds on the page are for information about privacy and 
>copyrights for the web site.
>
>To successfully choose any of these start points, screen reader users must 
>turn on whatever commands their program uses for mouse navigation and issue 
>actual mouse clicks on the text associated with each feature.
>
>Attempting to use Turbo Tax online reminds me of trying to use Netscape 
>when that browser first came out and lacked any keyboard navigation.  You 
>must ask for the font of text on the screen to determine what is a link 
>that you can select.
>
>Microsoft Active Accessibility and Internet Explorer make using Turbo Tax 
>online a bit easier.  You can review the onscreen text in a screen reader 
>fashion but when moving the mouse pointer to issue actual clicks, you are 
>navigating the screen reader unfriendly version of the page.
>
>As an example, choosing the Start New return option takes you to a page 
>where you must read and acknowledge a usage agreement.  You can read this 
>with the JFW Virtual PC or Window-Eyes MSAA mode on but then must find text 
>near the bottom of the page indicating that you Accept or Do Not 
>Accept.  These are not links so you'll have to issue mouse clicks on the 
>text.  And so it goes with the rest of the program.
>
>I have not used the web site enough to know whether one can successfully 
>complete a tax return with the limitations I've described.  The help for 
>the web site talks about being able to navigate from section to section of 
>the Turbo Tax Easy Step Interview for example but once I've started a 
>return I haven't found a way to do that with a screen reader.  Following 
>step-by-step I have been able to enter basic demographic and tax filing 
>status details about myself.  The income screens come next and my initial 
>impression of those was that they were quite cluttered because again it is 
>difficult to know what's a link and what is not.
>
>I and I suspect others will write to Intuit asking them to address these 
>issues.  The fact that their software programs like Turbo Tax, Quicken and 
>alike get more and more inaccessible with each new release doesn't leave me 
>much hope that the online version of their programs will be much improved 
>for next tax year.  For this year it is more of the trial and error of 
>assorted software that's unfortunately all too much of the reality of 
>accessing the computer with a screen reader in the year 2000.  While I 
>don't desire the days of DOS again, I do wish the state of accessibility 
>with the computer would return to one where we are asking: "How do you use 
>that program?" more often than "Does that program work with a screen reader?"
>
>I'm a realist though and by no means am I discounting the advances that 
>have been made in accessibility.  For anyone, access technology user or 
>not, it is plainly obvious that one can do much more with a computer today 
>than one could five or ten years ago.  However, as a percentage of the 
>total one can do with a computer, I do believe that what screen reader 
>users can successfully do has declined as computing technology has advanced 
>in the past several years.  As a comparison, suppose at the zenith of 
>computing accessibility what someone not using a screen reader could 
>accomplish was worth $1,000.  I'd estimate that screen reading access in 
>terms of a percentage was worth $800 or eighty percent of the computing 
>applications were available to a screen reading user.  Let's say that today 
>the total one can do with a computer is worth $10,000 I'd honestly say that 
>what one can access successfully with a screen reader is worth about $5,000 
>or at best fifty percent of the total available without a screen 
>reader.  Obviously we are all better off today than in the past but my 
>point is that screen reading users are falling behind.
>
>Kelly