National Federation of the Blind and USA v. HRB Digital LLC and HRB Tax Group, Inc. - Consent Decree

DEFINITIONS

“Auxiliary aids and services” includes—

• Qualified interpreters on-site or through video remote interpreting (VRI) services; notetakers; real-time computer-aided transcription services; written materials; exchange of written notes; telephone handset amplifiers; assistive listening devices; assistive listening systems; telephones compatible with hearing aids; closed caption decoders; open and closed captioning; voice, text, and video-based telecommunications products and systems, including text telephones (TTYs), videophones, and captioned telephones, or equally effective telecommunications devices; videotext displays; accessible electronic and information technology; or other effective methods of making aurally delivered information available to individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing;
• Qualified readers; taped texts; audio recordings; Brailled materials and displays; screen reader software; magnification software; optical readers; secondary auditory programs (SAP); large print materials; accessible electronic and information technology; or other effective methods of making visually delivered materials available to individuals who are blind or have low vision;
• Acquisition or modification of equipment or devices; and
• Other similar services and actions. 28 C.F.R. § 36.303(b).

“Bug fix policies, practices, and procedures” means those policies, practices, and/or procedures that H&R Block implements and maintains to resolve errors, flaws, failures, or faults in the website, its mobile applications, and the Online Tax Preparation Product that produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in unintended ways.

“Conformance” or “conform,” have the same meaning as used in the WCAG 2.0.

“Effective Date” is the date the Consent Decree is approved by the Court.

“Mobile applications” includes all software applications made available to the public designed to run on smartphones, tablet computers, or other mobile devices which enable users to obtain services or products from H&R Block. Mobile applications do not include third-party content on related webpages or links not owned or operated by H&R Block.

“Online Tax Preparation Product” means products offered and provided to customers by H&R Block available: (1) on or through www.hrblock.com and related websites and links owned, operated, branded, or paid for by H&R Block, whether free or fee for service; and (2) on all interface applications developed by or for H&R Block for use on mobile and tablet devices running on Apple iOS, Windows, Google Android, or other such operating systems. The Online Tax Preparation Product does not include third-party content on related webpages or links not owned or operated by H&R Block.

“Orphan pages” means files found on the www.hrblock.com web server that are no longer linked to the website and have been abandoned by H&R Block web services/developers. The traffic to these pages represents less than one percent (1%) of all page views for www.hrblock.com, and the content has not been updated by H&R Block in at least the year preceding the Effective Date of this Consent Decree.

A “substantial proposed change,” as used in this Consent Decree, is a proposed material change, modification, alteration, or addition to the user interface design (i.e., any interactive control or area a user can manipulate), but content added to the current user interface in accessible formats are not considered substantial proposed changes.

“Web content” and “website content” includes all textual, visual, and aural content encountered as part of the user experience of www.hrblock.com, mobile applications, and Online Tax Preparation Product, but does not extend to orphan pages as defined below.

“www.hrblock.com” and “the website” include:

• All web pages, web applications, resources, and services within the www.hrblock.com domain; its subdomains; and related domains;
• All of the information, resources, files, databases, images, graphics, text, audio, video, multimedia, services, code (including Hypertext Markup Language (“HTML”), .Net Framework, C#, etc., Dynamic HTML (including Cascading Style Sheets (“CSS”)), and any other communications sent by or retrieved from www.hrblock.com to members of the public accessing it;
• Web pages and online services controlled, owned, or operated by direct and indirect subsidiaries of HRB Digital LLC and HRB Tax Group, Inc. other than those located in the www.hrblock.com domain; and
• But does not include orphan pages.

Unless otherwise provided in this Decree, technical terms used in this Decree have the same meaning as provided in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (“WCAG”) 2.0 (Dec. 11, 2008), published by the World Wide Web Consortium (“W3C”), available at www.w3.org/TR/WCAG/. The term “WCAG 2.0 AA” as used in this Decree incorporates the WCAG 2.0 Level A and Level AA Success Criteria.