[nabentre] nabentre Re: Accessible Bookkeeping Software

Sun Aug 3 14:08:13 UTC 2014

Sarah,

Payroll is in fact going to be a focus of the work we will be doing in 2015. We had only a few short months to work on the issues we corrected in 2014 and had included payroll as one of our top priorities for the next phase of our effort.

The goal is to have a product that will be accessible out of the box with very minimal scripting solutions or needs.

Your observations about the business set up being a onetime exercise is exactly why we waited to address that in this phase of our progression. We intend to address that as well in 2015 to the best of our ability. I however, not being a finance expert, would leave that to an accountant regardless of the level of usability we introduce to that feature. Lol. What everyone needs to be aware of is that the platform that QuickBooks has been built on is nearly 20years old, is a custom developed program, and was created pre ADA, pre Microsoft, and pre MSA. But we have a winning combination of players working around those challenges and each step needs to be taken with deference and appreciation for the significant consumer base that use the product presently.

Thanks for pointing those things out, and we will be keeping people posted about our progress through our announcements and notices on our website at www.myblindspot.org.

People interested in reaching out to members of the Intuit team to share their thoughts or their appreciation for the attention being given to accessibility and to people in the community for the first time can write to Ted Drake, Senior Accessibility Engineer across all product lines at Intuit. His direct email is ted_drake at intuit.com.

Thanks.
Albert J. Rizzi, M.Ed.
Founder and CEO
My Blind Spot, Inc.
90 Broad Street - 18th Fl.
New York, New York  10004
www.myblindspot.org
C: 917-553-0347
P: 212-363-0330

"The person who says it cannot be done, shouldn't interrupt the one who is doing it."

Like Us on Facebook   LinkedIn   Twitter

My Blind Spot is a 501 (c) 3 tax exempt organization

-----Original Message-----
From: nabentre [mailto:nabentre-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Sarah Clark via nabentre
Sent: Sunday, August 03, 2014 9:36 AM
To: nabentre at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [nabentre] nabentre Re: Accessable Bookkeeping Software

This is great news. Does anyone know if they will be addressing the payroll 
features in the 2015 version? IMO this is the most crucial area not yet 
addressed. The new business setup can be done once by a sighted assistant 
and then it is done, but the payroll is ongoing, and rather sensative 
information that a business owner would probably like to be able to handle 
themselves, or at least be able to monitor whoever is doing it.

Sarah

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <nabentre-request at nfbnet.org>
To: <nabentre at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, August 03, 2014 5:00 AM
Subject: nabentre Digest, Vol 93, Issue 1

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>   1. Re: Accessable Bookkeeping Software (Albert Rizzi)
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2014 15:37:12 +0000
> From: Albert Rizzi <Albert at Myblindspot.org>
> To: NAB Entrepreneurs Mailing List <nabentre at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: Re: [nabentre] Accessable Bookkeeping Software
> Message-ID:
> <6f0780b8eb77445e95875d3fa9a09245 at CO2PR0701MB725.namprd07.prod.outlook.com>
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Keep your focus on My Blind Spot for Access to QuickBooks for Windows 
> 2014 - the world's leading small business accounting program.
>
> In addition to offering screen reader enhancements and the QuickBooks 
> programs at our MBS Store, we have developed a User's Guide and a set of 
> self-paced virtual lessons, demonstrating the ease of keyboard navigation 
> for setting up a chart of accounts, adding vendors, customers and 
> employees, creating invoices, purchase orders, writing checks, generating 
> financial reports to facilitate tax preparation, and more!
>
> For the first time, the power of QuickBooks for Windows will be available 
> for people of all abilities to independently calculate and manage personal 
> and commercial finances.
>
> Here is a "QuickBooks" overview of the usability and accessibility that 
> has been reintroduced into the QuickBooks program.
>
> My Blind Spot and the Intuit engineers looked at QB 2013 and realized that 
> it had taken a giant step backwards from the level of accessibility in 
> 2012.  Menu's and highlight bars were no longer accessible and some user 
> interface areas had been implemented that Jaws couldn't even read from the 
> screen. Unfortunately, these changes were a deliberate shift in the user 
> interface for usability reasons that just happened to have a significant 
> negative impact on screen reader users.
>
> We started compiling a list of must-fix items, basically the things that 
> needed to be done to give the screen reader any chance of figuring out 
> what was going on in the QuickBooks program.  Together with Intuit, My 
> Blind Spot's team of professionals made the necessary accessibility 
> changes to the core platform of the program, while making certain the 
> accessibility changes did not break core functionality of Quickbooks or 
> interfere with internal Quality Assurance processes for the consumer base 
> using QuickBooks for nearly 20 years.
>
> We identified 6-10 major problems and started working on them. We have 
> been able to fix most of the major roadblocks. But there are still a few 
> nagging glitches left for us to work on for 2015 and beyond. The current 
> version of QuickBooks for windows, comprised of Pro, Premiere and 
> Enterprise, is the most usable and accessible version in all of Intuit's 
> history, and with more accessibility fixes to Quickbooks in 2015, we 
> expect higher levels of usability and functionality for the screen reader 
> user.  We already have a list of fixes set as priorities for 2015, but 
> again, we have to remain cognizant of how the changes effect the product 
> overall prior to making any definitive changes to the core platform.
>
> Here are a list of our goals and intentions for this effort, which will 
> outline what we have done, and what we propose to do.
>
> 1.  Our first goal was to restore as much functionality as possible back 
> to QB 2012 levels.
> 2.  Implement programmatic changes that provided the necessary hooks that 
> a screen reader requires to interface properly with what's happening on 
> the screen. In other words, get better access than 2012 and definitely 
> better then 2013.
> 3.  Prioritize changes that had the widest reach and universal impact 
> within Quickbooks.
> 4.  Focus on fixes that impact the most common areas of day-to-day usage, 
> primarily customer and vendor screens.
>
> This means that there are still features in QuickBooks that remain 
> inaccessible to screen readers that could not be addressed in QB 2014. 
> The most prominent of these areas include New Company Setup, Payroll, and 
> the Help Screens as well as other areas.  Our priorities are to 
> concentrate on those areas that people will use on a daily basis, then 
> move out from there.
>
> Anything that could not be address in the standard development cycles 
> followed by Intuit have been addressed, to the best of our ability, with 
> the JAWS scripts we created and the educational materials we developed to 
> compliment the newly accessible program. We will continue following the 
> same prioritization strategy for the work now commencing for QuickBooks 
> 2015.  Priorities will be to fix general areas in the features most used 
> by day-to-day users and from there, expand to less commonly used features 
> that need attention.
>
>
> For additional information regarding pricing, educational materials, and 
> training, or if you are interested in a tandem session to experience 
> firsthand the usability that has been reintroduced back to the product, 
> write us at info at myblindspot.org. Those of you interested in purchasing 
> the accessible version of QuickBooks for Windows can go to the MBS store 
> by visiting the link below and purchasing everything you need from our 
> website. Every purchase made through My Blind Spot goes to help fund the 
> necessary work to open those virtual doors that have been locked to the 
> blind and visually impaired communities in the past.
>
> At My Blind Spot we believe access to the right tools promotes ability and 
> restores infinite possibilities.
>
> http://myblindspot.org/quickbooks/quickbooks_jaws_scripts.php/
>
> Like Us on Facebook   LinkedIn   Twitter
>
> My Blind Spot is a 501 (c) 3 tax exempt organization
>
>
> Albert J. Rizzi, M.Ed.
> Founder and CEO
> My Blind Spot, Inc.
> 90 Broad Street - 18th Fl.
> New York, New York? 10004
> www.myblindspot.org
> C: 917-553-0347
> P:?212-363-0330
>
>
> "The person who says it cannot be done, shouldn't interrupt the one who is 
> doing it."
> ?
> Like Us on Facebook  ?LinkedIn  ?Twitter
>
> ?
>
>
>
> My Blind Spot is a 501 (c) 3 tax exempt organization
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nabentre [mailto:nabentre-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kane 
> Brolin
> Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2014 10:36 AM
> To: NAB Entrepreneurs Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [nabentre] Accessable Bookkeeping Software
>
> On 1/27/2014, Harley Cannon <hcmusicmaker at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Does anyone on this list know about accessable bookkeeping software
>> whereby you can download your statements, and then work with the data?
>> I bought Money talks software, but the files my bank provides can't be
>> imported.  I bank with PNC
>>
>> Thanks for your time!
>
> Harley, you might want to check out Accomplish CashManager.  This software 
> is considered a mainstream bookkeeping solution in New Zealand, where it 
> was developed.  But the people who developed this came to realize that it 
> would work better for visually impaired people than other  commercially 
> available options for the U.S. market, such as QuickBooks or PeachTree. 
> So they worked specifically to improve this functionality, and those who 
> developed CashManager gained specific expertise in JAWS and Window-Eyes 
> while doing so.  To my knowledge, this is not yet a product that works 
> with Apple computers or with mobile platforms; I could be wrong about 
> this.
>
> My information on Accomplish Global and their product line is a bit out of 
> date.  But I worked with them in an attempt to market CashManager in the 
> USA from 2008 until midway through 2010, and I think that since that time 
> they have come out with a business version of CashManager that will work 
> seamlessly with bank statements and that even figures in sales tax related 
> to individual American states.
> Their Website says in part:  "CashManager Business version provides all 
> the basic bookkeeping functions you will need to effectively manage your 
> accounts and calculate your sales tax."
>
> Check out their product line by visiting 
> http://us.accomplishglobal.com/index.php?page=shop.browse&category_id=25&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=30&lang=us&vmcchk=1&Itemid=30.
> Or you can phone me at (574)386-8868.
>
> -Kane
>
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