The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is committed to making every document on its World Wide Web site accessible to the widest possible audience. We work with skilled accessibility contractors and our own accessibility specialists to insure that our documents are, to the maximum extent feasible, accessible to persons using special assistive technology, including screen reading software and refreshable Braille displays.
Files created in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) are generally considered accessible for persons using screen reading devices and refreshable Braille displays. However, many of the documents found on IRS.gov contain essential content that is graphical in nature. These graphical displays often include tables, charts worksheets or other information that cannot be adequately described in a single sentence or through use of a long description tag in HTML. In such cases, a text description must be drafted that fully conveys the essential content of the graphical display.
The IRS Alternative Media Center has prepared hundreds of its most popular tax forms and publications using full text descriptions where needed and is making these files available for download through IRS.gov. Most of the files prepared in this manner are in ASCII text format, a few were prepared in HTML and all have been transcribed for Braille. The Braille print files are in .brf format and can be sent directly to an embosser for high quality Braille output. To download these files, use the following links:
Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) Files
Persons using screen reading devices generally cannot directly read documents in PDF format. Adobe Systems, Inc., provides a free translation service through their Access web pages which will translate PDF files into HTML documents. This can be used in one of three ways:
- The user can go to the Access server, fill out an HTML form, and convert a PDF file to HTML on-the-fly. The user enters the web address of the form and the server will go get the PDF document, translate it, and return it to the user. Convert a PDF document to HTML on-the-fly.
- The user can send an e-mail message to the Access server, giving the address of the document to be translated or by sending the document as an attachment. The server will then get this document and translate it to either a web page or a text (ASCII) document. Translate a document to HTML or plain text using e-mail.
- For systems which are not connected to the Internet, Adobe has a free downloadable accessibility plug-in , called Adobe Acrobat Access 4.05 for Windows, for use with 4.0x versions of the Adobe Acrobat Reader for Microsoft Windows 95/98, or Windows NT 4.0. This plug-in helps to overcome some of the problems of reading PDF documents with screen readers, but for systems with Internet access, Adobe recommends using the on-line Access translation service instead.
These methods of making PDF files accessible are adequate for many documents. However, they are not adequate for PDF documents in which content is included in graphics files or for especially complex formatting. In these cases, we will be providing an alternative format for use with screen readers.
Talking Tax Forms
The IRS Alternative Media Center is working with Adobe Systems and some talented accessibility contractors to create Adobe PDF “talking” tax forms. We are using the Adobe Acrobat PDF format as a means of distributing government forms as well as other documents. The IRS has made most of the top 100 downloaded forms available in accessible PDF format. The IRS is committed to providing "talking" tax forms that are fully accessible to blind users with speech synthesizers.
We welcome comments on the "talking" tax forms. To leave a comment, go to our comments page.
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