Accessible Taxes?
A Blind Consumer's Experience with the US Tax System

Can a Blind Person File US Taxes Independently?

As tax season in the United States approached, Sachin Pavithran, who is legally blind, and his sighted colleague, Shane Anderson, decided to find out if it is possible for a blind person to fill out tax forms and file them without any help from a sighted person. Sachin had never completed his own taxes before, so this was entirely new territory for him. Shane had filled out his own taxes numerous times, so he offered to help Sachin understand the process, but he did not want to perform any of the tasks for Sachin, such as filling out the forms or sending them to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The idea was to see if Sachin could do these tasks independently.

Sachin uses a "screen reader" software program called JAWS to access his computer. JAWS reads text out loud, using a voice synthesizer. This audio interface allows Sachin to navigate his computer environment, as long as computer programs, web pages, and other electronic information are developed with disability access in mind. That, of course, is the big question: will the IRS publications, tax software, and other tax information be designed with accessibility in mind?

Sachin looked forward to the experience. "Being legally blind," said Sachin, "I have always filed my taxes through a tax filing agency, which is definitely an easy solution, but probably not the cheapest way to file taxes. Since people have the option of filing taxes in the leisure of their homes—and do very easily and a lot more cheaply—it is only fair if screen reader users have the same opportunity in filing their taxes."

Despite Sachin's desire to finally be able to file taxes independently, he was somewhat skeptical that he would be able to do it. His previous experiences with inaccessible web sites and software programs gave him reason to suspect that he might have difficulties using these resources.

Unfortunately, his skepticism turned out to be well founded. Sachin experienced barriers and difficulties in nearly every stage of the process, and in nearly every electronic tax system.

Tax Software and Online Services

Because Sachin cannot access paper-based information, it made sense to try some of the software tools and web-based tools that are currently on the market for preparing taxes. Shane and Sachin tried TurboTax Premier, TurboTax online, TaxACT online, and H & R block online. There are other programs on the market, but Sachin's and Shane's patience wore thin as they ran up against barrier after barrier. None of the solutions they tried was designed with disability access in mind.

After installing TurboTax Premier, Sachin tried to access it with JAWS. Shane was able to see the information on the screen, but JAWS was unable to read it to Sachin. The only items that seemed compatible with JAWS were the buttons that allowed the user to progress from page to page. There was no way that Sachin could use this program to do his taxes.

They tried the online version of TurboTax. This time, the text instructions were accessible, but the buttons were not. The Web site was not designed to be accessible to the blind. Sachin encountered similar problems on both the TaxACT online service and the H & R Block online service. JAWS was able to read part of the information to Sachin, but not enough to actually complete his taxes.

Shane could have helped Sachin through the process, but this would have defeated the purpose of the experiment they were engaged in. They needed to find out if Sachin could do it on his own. The answer, so far, was that he could not. At this point, Sachin and Shane gave up on the idea of trying to use commercial products to prepare Sachin's taxes.

The IRS Web Site

After their initial failures, Sachin and Shane went to the IRS web site to see if that might be easier. Shane noted that the IRS had done a great deal of work in an attempt to make the resources accessible to people with disabilities. The site design itself was rather simple and straightforward, even though the amount of information could be daunting.

Sachin recounted his experience with the IRS web site:

The initial stage was for me to go to the IRS web site and find out what forms I needed to file. The first couple of pages in the IRS web site were laid out really well. When I started going through the different links to get to the page I needed to get the information that I was searching for, it definitely started getting overwhelming. The first major obstacle that I came across was that there was a lot of information within one page. A sighted user could easily scan over the heading or titles and get to the part which is more essential for him/her. Being a screen reader user this is not possible for me to scan through a page with out actually listening to the whole content. As we all know, when it comes to tax information there are always pages and pages of content.…

After finding out what forms were required for me to file my taxes, the next attempt was to find out where these forms were located on the Web site, along with the documentation on how to fill out these forms. This was even more cumbersome than the previous task. The order and arrangement of the forms and the documentation for the forms made finding the correct forms a difficult process.

Sachin was soon to discover, in Shane's words, that "one of the biggest problems of the site is not the site itself; it is the fact that taxes are so complicated. It is difficult for any lay person to find out which form to fill out." Indeed, most US citizens—with or without disabilities—find taxes, tax forms, and tax instructions confusing. Still, Sachin and Shane proceeded with the task at hand, despite the confusing nature of taxes.

Shane described his own frustrations at trying to find the correct forms for Sachin: "It is difficult for anyone to find even a standard 1040 form. Here are the links I followed to find a downloadable 1040 form. What links would you follow?" asked Shane, rhetorically, then he continued to explain the confusion he experienced:

From the home page I followed the "1040 Central: Find What You Need, Fast" link. This next page is fairly easy to understand. It is just a larger list of helpful links. I want to download a 1040 form, so I choose the "Need a tax form or publication?" link. Now things start getting a little hairier; there is a huge list of links and captions to go along with them, but luckily I am only looking for the basic 1040 form, so I follow the "Forms and Instructions" link with the caption "Select from a list of forms and instructions displayed in form number order." Sounds easy doesn't it? It's not. On this page it seems that accessibility has not been considered. There are links such as "select here," or "SGML", or just "freely available" (what is freely available? Money?). Next there is the list of tax forms and instructions in a list box. Can you find the 1040 tax form? It took me a while. By this time I was a little frustrated.

Once the proper forms were identified, Sachin still had to be able to access those forms with his screen reader. The IRS makes all of its forms available to the public in Adobe PDF format. This format was chosen because it allows users to print out the forms exactly as they should be printed out. The format preserves the look and feel of the document in way that other formats, such as HTML, cannot. Historically, PDF documents have been entirely inaccessible to screen reader users. In the recent past, though, Adobe made it possible to create forms that are accessible to screen readers. The IRS took advantage of this technology and created forms that should be accessible to screen readers.

The IRS used Adobe's technology to create both "accessible" and "inaccessible" versions of its tax forms. Sachin had to make sure that he was accessing the accessible versions. Besides that, he had to fill out the form all at once. The fact that Sachin was using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, as opposed to the full Adobe Acrobat authoring program may have contributed to the problems that Sachin experienced. The free Acrobat Reader appeared to be somewhat buggy when used with JAWS.

According to Sachin:

It was definitely was a good attempt by the IRS to have accessible forms.… In spite of making the forms accessible, it definitely wasn't to the state I could fill the form out without getting help. There were several circumstances were I had to close the form and start all over again.…Throughout the process I had to get help from Shane to let me know whether I was in the right page or right list to get the information that I needed to file my taxes. Even after getting all the forms and the documentation for the forms I needed to file my taxes, I still needed help in filling out the forms. The format of the forms was not very user friendly, and I kept running into situations were I had to restart inputting information in the form since something went wrong while the screen reader was reading the information on the form.

At least according to Sachin's experience, then, the "accessible" PDF forms were not as accessible as he would have liked them to be. Part of the problem may lie in the complexity of the forms themselves. It is relatively easy to make simple data tables and forms accessible to screen readers. Complex data tables and forms, like those in tax documents, are definitely more difficult to make accessible. Even so, Sachin's experience suggests that there are technology issues that need to be dealt with in either the screen reader software, the PDF reader, or the way in which the PDF file was created.

Conceding Defeat (at least for this year's taxes)

The whole process turned out to be a frustrating experience for both Sachin and Shane. The end result was that Sachin did not file his taxes independently. He relied heavily on Shane's support. Does this mean that it could not have been done? Perhaps not. It is conceivable that someone with more experience with taxes, and/or more experience using a screen reader to access PDF files might have been able to finish the process almost entirely without help. However, since the IRS forms were meant to printed on paper, Sachin still would have needed to print out the forms and sign them. Signing them requires the assistance of another person, to make sure that Sachin signs in the correct location.

To the credit of the IRS, they made a significant effort to make their forms accessible to citizens who are blind. Few other US government sites have made such a concerted effort to be accessible.

On the other hand, the software programs and online services that Sachin and Shane tried were inaccessible to the point that they were unusable by Sachin. No matter how experienced or knowledgeable a person is, these programs cannot be accessed with a screen reader. It is impossible for a blind person to use these programs and services independently. Most of these accessibility barriers could be easily overcome by the software creators, however, by simply implementing accessibility standards, such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines of the W3C or Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Sachin's experience was the experience of only one person. Perhaps other screen reader users would be able to file their own taxes without assistance. The complexity of the tax filing process is a challenge for anyone to comprehend and navigate successfully, especially on the first try. Nevertheless, after making the attempt to file his taxes independently, Sachin concluded, "Unless they make things more accessible, I will not attempt to file my taxes on my own again. I would rather pay a filing agency to have my taxes filed than waste a lot of time in having to redo my tax forms again and again."