Tuesday April 15, 2008

It is tax day; can you interact with your government electronically to file your tax return?

Governments worldwide have been going electronic/digital for a long time - and not just internally, but also in their interactions with their citizens/constituents. A big question is, as they do this, will their interactions be accessible to all citizens with disabilities? This is a central tenant of Section 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act, which requires that:

This question of public accessibility has come up numerous times in discussions around OpenDocument Format (vs. other documents formats): a move to a standard document format internally within a State or Federal agency might also mean using that format for interactions with the public. In such cases, the format should be one that is accessible not only to employees with disabilities, but also citizens of that state or country. I suggested last year that one of the key principles of such an adopted document format is that it be accessible via affordable assistive technologies, because requiring an expensive investment in software in order to interact with a government isn't a fair or appropriate burden to place on citizen - especially if that government isn't providing such expensive assistive technologies to its citizens.

As today is tax day in the United States, it is a good time to look at the question affordable, accessible electronic interaction with governments in the area of tax preparation and tax form submission. This is particularly timely this year because of the Economic Growth Package signed into law by President Bush in January, which provides an economic stimulus payment of up to $600 per person via a tax rebate (plus another $300 per child). To get this rebate, you must file a tax return, even if you have too little income to otherwise need to file a return.

70% of people with disabilities in the United States are unemployed - they earn little to no money. And in the United States there are basically four ways to get the assistive technology needed to have access to electronic content: through your employer, through your school, through rehabilitation services, or by purchasing it yourself. If you among the 70% who are unemployed, you aren't getting AT through your employer or school (you aren't considered unemployed as a full-time student). If you are unemployed, you probably don't have the many hundreds or thousands of dollars to hand needed to buy assistive technologies. And finally, rehabilitation services are stretched very thin in this country (and anyway typically only serve folks who are in the process of getting a job), which means most unemployed folks with disabilities have to do without assistive technologies and without access to computers and the Internet.

Which brings us back to the issue of filing a tax return and claiming the economic stimulus payment if you unable to read or otherwise fill in a paper tax form. One option is if someone in your area offers assistance (the San Francisco Lighthouse for the Blind has offered a free service for tax preparation for the blind in order to get the stimulus payment). And now - thanks to open source accessibility solutions on the open source UNIX desktop - there is second option: combine a cheap or free computer with a free desktop software and free screen access solution, and someone with a disability can file their own tax return themselves (at least so long as the Internet tax filing services following the web accessibility guidelines).

Starting with something like a $250 PC clone onto which you install Ubuntu or Fedora or OpenSolaris; or using a free, refurbished computer from an outfit like the Alameda County Computer Resource Center (which come with either Ubuntu or OpenSuSE pre-installed), a blind person has the pieces they need to file their taxes and get their rebate (a rebate that is more than enough to cover the cost of the brand new PC clone they might have purchased to connect to the Internet). In fact, this is what Kenny Hit and Mike Gorse were doing this tax season - using the open source Orca screen reader on the open source UNIX desktop with the open source Firefox web browser to file their taxes. Their only barrier was due to accessibility problems with the web sites of the companies they were filing with... (2008-04-15 18:04:52.0) Permalink