http://www.cslnet.ctstateu.edu/attygenl/press/2000/health/blind.htm
text version follows
Connecticut Attorney General's Office Press Release
Attorney General, National Federation Of Blind Applaud On-Line Tax
Filing Services For Agreeing To Make Sites BLIND-ACCESSIBLE For 2000 Tax
Season
Date: April 17, 2000
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal
today
was joined by Dr. Marc Maurer, President
of the
National Federation of the Blind (NFB),
in
announcing agreements with four companies
--
HDVest, Intuit, H & R Block, and Gilman &
Ciocia -
- that provide on-line federal income tax
filing
services to make their Internet sites
accessible to
the blind.
The four companies have agreed to
work
with the Attorney General and the NFB to
change the coding for each of the five
websites
in question -- hdvest.com, turbotax.com,
e1040.com, hrblock.com, and taxcut.com --
to
enable blind individuals to access the
sites.
According to the Attorney General, the
changes
will greatly improve the ability of blind
individuals
to access the sites through the use of
standard
screen reader programs, which can
translate
screen information to Braille or
computerized
speech formats.
These code changes will include
implementation of recommendations by the
World Wide Web Consortium, an
international
organization that works to develop
universal
standards for HTML coding. HTML is the
computer
language used to create and design
websites. It
allows users to move from page to page
within
and between websites.
"The blind should have equal rights
and
effective access in traveling the
Internet's
information highway. Disabled Americans
should
not have to reinvent or reassert such
basic rights
in the new Information Age, just because
the
means of access now is a computer rather
than
stairs or sidewalks," said Blumenthal.
"Filing tax
returns electronically is one example --
but only
one -- of essential access that should be
guaranteed. Rights must be protected --
kept
real, not virtual -- even in this age of
new
technology."
"Blind people can and do make
extensive
use of computer programs and the
Internet, so
naturally we are thrilled these companies
have
decided to work with us to ensure that
their sites
are accessible to the blind," said
National
Federation of the Blind President Marc
Maurer.
"The world of technology is constantly
growing
and changing, however, so this is a first
step in a
longer journey."
Each company's web site was recently
listed
on the Internal Revenue Service's
official web site
as an on-line partner for the purpose of
electronically filing federal income tax
returns.
Each site, however, proved inaccessible
to the
blind upon testing by the Attorney
General and
the National Federation of the Blind. The
Attorney
General and the NFB alerted the four
companies
that their web sites were in violation of
Title III of
the Americans with Disabilities Act,
which requires
public accommodations to take reasonable
steps
to ensure accessibility to individuals
with
disabilities. The four companies have
issued written
assurances that they will work with the
Attorney
General and the NFB to make their web
sites
accessible to the blind in time for the
2000 tax
season.
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