Hi All,
Call it irony or whatever you choose, but I received some interesting email
today. A couple days ago I had forwarded a letter from the U.S. Civil
Rights Division talking about computer access at a college to a couple
email lists. This morning I received an email from a vice president at
Intuit telling me that for some reason that email made its way to his inbox
after many forwards. I'm still not certain why he felt compelled to write
to me indicating that Intuit had a corporate desire/commitment toward
accessibility but I'll dispense with that for the time being.
I've removed email addresses from this email exchange for now but wanted to
share this. It tells me that the message is not filtering up to the top
levels of Intuit. I know that many more than two people, myself one of the
supposed two, have contacted this company.
Also, I may not be 100 percent accurate in that there was any formal
contact between HJ and Intuit with respect to Quicken. However, when
writing my initial message I thought I recalled reading an announcement
that a joint presentation was happening on the topic with Intuit and HJ at
some disability conference (probably CSUN) a last year. I did not check
with HJ or check any conference archives first.
The initial message I received is at the end of this exchange. I've taken
the further step of placing "Kelly" before each paragraph of mine and
"Intuit" before each paragraph from the Intuit VP.
So what do folks think would be a good next step? Can anyone give
technical specifications that will enhance the accessibility of Intuit
products? I know that when I used Turbotax this year, it was a challenge
to find instructions and such anyplace near where the PC cursor was
located. Also several dialogs in the program wouldn't read with whatever
cursor I tried.
Delivered-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: TURBOTAX FOR THE BLIND
Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 14:24:40 -0700
Intuit
See my comments in UPPER CASE below (hope this doesn't present problems to
your screen reader).
-----Original Message-----
From: Kelly Ford [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, May 20, 1999 12:12 PM
Subject: Re:
Kelly
Interesting the ways that email bounces around. As it so happens the
accessibility of several Intuit packages happens to be a topic of
discussion on several email lists just now.
I find your statement indicating that I might know Intuit is committed to
accessibility to be well let's just say interesting. I have been a long
time user of Quicken and Turbotax from early releases of the DOS versions
of the software. I must say that in the Windows environment each new
release of both of these products has been more and more inaccessible.
Intuit
I DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY FOR MAKING PRODUCTS ACCESSIBLE FOR
THE BLIND, BUT DO KNOW WE USE STANDARD DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR CREATING
STANDARD WINDOWS APPLICATIONS.
Kelly
I'd be interested to know what steps Intuit takes to test accessibility and
follow accessible software design practices. Do you have a point person
within Intuit who consumers can contact with respect to accessibility? Is
there someone championing the cause of accessible software design within
the various development chains for Intuit products? Is there a web address
or other resource where we might go to learn about the latest doings with
respect to accessibility within the Intuit corporation and products?
Intuit
IN MY SEVEN PLUS YEARS HERE, THIS IS THE SECOND REQUEST I'VE SEEN FOR
MAKING OUR PRODUCTS MORE ACCESSIBLE FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED. BECAUSE OF
THE VERY LIMITED DEMAND, WE DO NOT HAVE A SPECIFIC PERSON CHAMPIONING THIS
AREA. IN MY VIEW, CUSTOMERS DICTATE PRODUCT DIRECTION, NOT A PRODUCT MANAGER.
Kelly
After turning many family and friends (all 10 of my brothers and sisters
now use Intuit products) on to the ease of use and better financial
management I experienced with Intuit products, it is disappointing when I
have to answer their requests for how to use features with replies of,
"Sorry, that no longer works with my screen reader." It was disappointing
this tax season to have *every* financial institution I work with send me
accessible copies of my tax information, to further be eligible for IRS
paperless filing and now find that the tax preparation software I used was
the barrier to my independent completion of my tax return. In the past it
was the paper part of the process I had to get assistance with in the form
of someone reading the material to me once. From that point I could use
Turbotax to complete my tax return. Now, with the paper side of the
equation resolved, I find it sad that it is the Intuit software that's the
barrier, especially when the letters I and others have written to your
company seem to go unacknowledged.
Intuit
NOT SURE WHAT PROBLEM YOU EXPERIENCED ON THE TurboTax PRODUCT. WE DO
SUPPORT PAPERLESS FILING AND WE'RE THE ONLY SOFTWARE VENDOR TO SUPPORT THIS
PAPERLESS FILING PROJECT WITH THE IRS.
Kelly
I guess I'm a bit curious to know what prompted you to write to me, someone
who merely forwarded an email letter to a couple lists on a topic that
wasn't at all related to Intuit. In the past programs like Quicken and
such were extremely popular with people who are blind. As I said I have
long used Quicken because paying a bill electronically is much faster than
attempting to type out a check and use methods to verify that it has been
accurate. But many of the advanced features of programs like Quicken are
designed in ways that don't work with screen reading technology. And
Turbotax is largely an adventure in frustration. Intuit was once a company
that I personally admired for the corporate belief in giving the average
person effective tools for easy, yet quality, financial management.
Intuit
YOUR EMAIL FOUND IT'S WAY TO MY DESK FROM OUR CUSTOMER SERVICE GROUP. THEY
FORWARDED IT TO ME SO WE COULD ADD THE COMMENTS TO OUR DATABASE OF CUSTOMER
SUGGESTIONS. I HAD NOT CONSIDERED HOW OUR PROGRAM IS USED BY THE BLIND AND
THOUGHT IT WOULD BE APPROPRIATE TO ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR REQUEST AND THEN SEE
WHAT WE CAN DO FROM A DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVE TO MAKE TurboTax MORE
ACCESSIBLE. MY REPLY WAS SIMPLY TO ACKNOWLEDGE, THANK YOU AND THEN LEARN
MORE FROM OUR DEVELOPMENT GROUP ON HOW WE CAN SERVE THE BLIND.
Kelly
I do know that someone from Intuit worked with a screen reader company
called Henter-Joyce at one time and made a few enhancements that worked in
the basic check register of Quicken. But as I'm certain you are aware,
Quicken is much more than that. I use JFW, the screen reader from
Henter-Joyce and can tell you that there are many other areas that need
attention.
Have you ever tried a screen reader with your software? If not I'd
encourage you to do so and get a feel for how the technology works.
Intuit
NEVER USED A SCREEN READER, BUT WILL FOLLOW UP ON THIS. WHILE WE TRY TO
MAKE THE PRODUCT EASIER AND MORE STREAMLINED EACH YEAR, I DO GET CONCERNED
ABOUT TWEAKING FEATURES OR THE USER INTERFACE THAT DEGRADE THE USER
EXPERIENCE FOR MOST CUSTOMERS. NEVERTHELESS, WE'LL LOOK INTO FINDING OUT
WHAT IT TAKES FOR US TO BE MORE COMPATIBLE WITH SCREEN READERS.
Kelly
If there's a point person that I can direct more specific comments and
suggestions to that has an awareness of accessibility I'd certainly
appreciate knowing who to contact. The average person still seems
bedazzled that people who are blind can actually use computers.
Intuit
YOUR LAST POINT IS PROBABLY ACCURATE. WHILE I KNOW COMPUTERS ARE ACCESSIBLE
FOR THOSE WHO ARE BLIND, I HAVE NO IDEA HOW GOOD/BAD THIS EXPERIENCE MAY
BE. SO IN ONE SENSE, YOU ACHIEVED YOUR GOAL OF RAISING MY AWARENESS.
Original Message from Intuit
At 11:26 AM 5/20/99 -0700, you wrote:
> Kelly Ford, Your email re. Civil Rights Letter re. Long Beach found
>its way to my inbox after many recipients. As you may know, Intuit is
>committed to creating products and services that are accessible and easy to
>use for all customers, regardless of disability or handicap. Our success is
>based on listening to what customers want and then delivering
>products/services that address these needs. We continue to do that
>year-after-year and your feedback will be considered in our product
>development plans for all Intuit products. Thanks for the feedback.
-
Visit the jfw ml web page: http://jfw.cjb.net
