Web Site Accessibility Blog

Maybe I’ll just rename this to the Captcha Blog. I’m really getting tired of this.

It seems as though I am running into these captcha’s everywhere. This week’s culprit is Verio.

It seems as though I can easily view and register a domain, however purchasing it is another matter, as the captcha will stop a screen reader dead. A user relying on a screen reader, or unable to make out the code, is not able to move past the credit card stage.

Can we please find another method that all humans can use?

There is nothing in the code or on the page that gives the user any alternative, other than going
to another registrar.

Today, July 26 2005, marks the 15-year anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

This move had an impact on many Americans, as then President Bush stated that the “shameful wall of exclusion” would fall as a result of this action. Little did I think anyone realized that there would be two frontiers that would be affected by this act. The first frontier was the physical frontier - which required that buildings, public areas and workspaces be more accessible to people, allowing more freedom for those with disabilities to be more independent.

The second frontier has slowly been opening, as it was barely imagined when the first act was signed into law, the digital frontier. The Web ran far ahead of accessibility, although early design techniques allowed for a limited form of accessibility. Now, the frontier is taking shape in many forms, from creating accessible web sites to accessible devices, such as MP3 players, PDA’s and cell phones.

Having been a witness for many years to physical inaccessibility and the sometimes cruel comments of others, I am amazed to be in the time that we are. While I do not condone a government mandate or law to make businesses create accessible web sites, I am glad this Act affects the status quo. I believe business should be able to choose to ignore a large part of the population, and suffer the consequences of it. In my opinion, the work is in convincing businesses to be inclusive, fair and thoughtful, which in turn will help their businesses to grow.

I only hope to be able to be a small part of helping this far-reaching legislation that allows freedom of Americans to enjoy the same benefits as anyone else. Access to physical buildings, web sites and technology will continue to grow and develop, and this historic Act will have an impact on many lives for many years to come.

The bottom line: Even without legislation, it’s the right thing to do.

The Harry Potter series has been hailed as the revival of reading among young children, teens and adults alike, which I think is a great thing. The stories are engaging, well-written, and to see children excited about reading is a very powerful thing. However, there is a lot of drama underlying the Harry Potter series, ebooks and accessibility, that I think this may end up being one of the longest posts I’ve made. So, this post is not really about any comments of mine about the Harry Potter series, only the concerns that surround e-publishing, web site design and the fighting against the digital age that has arisen as a result of the popularity of this international phenomenon.

The E-Book Controversy
The author of the Potter series, J.K. Rowling, and her literary agents, decided against releasing the novel on-line in an e-book format. They cited piracy and lack of interest among young readers in the digital e-book format. However, within 24 hours of the “Half-Blood Prince” release there was a full digital copy of the book online, for free, put together by fans that bought the book, scanned the pages with OCR software, proofread and released. The result of a coordinated effort among people that never met personally, but shared a common goal.

I think in a choice between some and none, the publishers might consider getting some. There is a demand, especially in this series. There are also a number of readers that cannot read the “typical� book. Multiple hindrances prevent people from reading the standard book format. Blindness and physical disabilities are only a few of the reasons. Therefore, how can those who need alternate versions of the book appreciate the release or the excitement surrounding it?

The hesitance of releasing the book is due to the lack of interest of children in reading e-books. The lawyers for the literary agency compared the plight of the great literary works “Princess Diaries� and “Samurai Girls� to average authors, such as Michael Crichton. Whereas Crichton’s books are successfully marketed to adults as e-books, the “Samari Girls� did not fare nearly as well, even when offered for free. Just my guess, but you think the quality of work may enter into the equation at some point? Somehow, it doesn’t surprise me that the demand is not the same for “Samurai Girls� as for “The Andromeda Strain.� Maybe offering something of quality, that appeals to a broad audience, may sell an e-book. But the market would not have created its own e-book, available for free, if the demand were not there, would it? Otherwise, to you publishers and literary agents, zero percent of zero equals zero. (0% x 0 = 0) Get it?

The Accessible Website
The other side to the Harry Potter buzz is the newly “accessabilized� J.K. Rowling web site. The site is the same, but a team of programmers from Lightmaker Group, Royal National Institute of the Blind and Royal National Institute for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People gave it an accessibility overhaul. Apparently, this is being hyped as to “what can happen when high end designers partner with accessibility experts.�

What is overlooked is that this is not a new web site; instead, it is just now accessible. What was previously a Flash-based experience for users is now an Accessible Flash-based web site. I don’t think that I can do better than Jeffrey Zeldman’s prudent observation; “On the one hand, it demonstrates how accessible a Flash-based site can be. On the other, it shows how many expensive experts it may take to make a deep Flash site accessible.â€?

Which is the case in this point, cost. That is the reason so many companies would love to overlook accessibility. But the reasoning of cost neglects the actual issue. The cost factor is minimal, that argument is a red herring, it distracts from the actual problem. It is web sites and news like this that makes people believe it is an expensive venture. If you want to see the reaction to Macromedia patting themselves on the back, check out the comments section in their blog. Which requires a captcha to leave a comment . . . (enough said about that)

If it were so critical and important, why wasn’t it implemented when the site went live years ago? It would have been cheaper. However, the current accessible version is not without hindrances. Just because something is accessible does not mean it performs well in usability. The accessibility features are still difficult to find, and are not able to be used in programs other than JAWS and Window Eyes. Oh, and by the way, the accessibility features are only available in English.

Many feel that, though accessible, the usability is significantly lacking. The text-only version could have simply been enhanced to allow for greater accessibility and usability while still providing an “experience.� While this is being touted as a significant accessibility accomplishment for Macromedia and its Flash technology, to me it raises more questions.
Why not create a standards-based site that uses Flash elements? Wouldn’t the cost be less and not require the services of a horde of “experts,â€? which most sites cannot afford? Doesn’t accessible mean that the site can be used, understood and appreciated, regardless of user agent?

However, all of this does make one simple point. At the core of any marketing effort, designing for accessibility at the beginning of a project will prevent additional costs or additional losses in the future.

Some is better than none, but all is better than some.

I thought I was over Reality TV, until I happened upon RockStar:INXS.

Normally, I would never write about this, so be patient. If you could care less about this, scroll down - MSN is forcing the captcha now . . .

Anyhow, when i first watched this last week, I was impressed with the talent and energy that the singers brought to the stage. They are competing to become the next lead singer of INXS, and last week was a hopeful indicator of some good talent. I thoroughly enjoyed last weeks show and loved to hear the great covers of great classic rock songs. JD’s performance of California Dreamin’ was amazing, and Ty amazed me with his rendition of Pat Benatar’s “Heartbreaker”. The women showed that could compete with the men as Jordis nailed Nivana’s “Heart Shaped Box” and Deanna rocked the classic Clash, “Should I Stay or Should I Go.” Now you know my favorites to win.

Ok, so it’s a festival of memories for those of us that grew up in the 80’s.

This week was an entirely different story. I’ll be nice and say I was amazingly disappointed. Apart from a few good performances, they were nowhere near the mostly solid “wow” performances of last week. My guess is the singers are paranoid and picking the songs to sing out of fear of getting voted out, rather than of appreciation and desire to win.

All that aside, in order to vote for your favorite performance of the evening, you are asked to go to the website at rockstar.msn.com and vote, or text and pay the charges. Of course, I go vote online, as I have yet to figure out the text feature on my new phone, and hey, it’s easier on the web. . .

Behold, what does MSN use as a method of preventing automated voting? Yup, the dreaded CAPTCHA!

Can you distinguish the characters? I failed this one. Apparently, that last character is not a “J”. I could only imagine the problems many people were having with this “security measure.”

The only text on the page?
Match the characters in the picture.
To continue, type the characters you see in the picture.
The picture contains 8 characters.

Wow. Not only was I amazed to see NO alternative, NO explanation for those who cannot read or understand the image, it was one of the most difficult captcha’s I had ever used. Really - I failed to copy the right letters two out of four attempts.

Nice, MSN. It’s not like Google and Yahoo made news about this in the past few weeks. According to this article at Internet News, MSN supposedly has an accessibility team and a work-around for the captcha. So where is it? What are the options for blind and low vision viewers? Not only that, what about those that cannot understand the cryptic picture that is provided? Is it such a small segment of the population that it doesn’t matter?

The word “picture” can be repeated 3 times in three sentences, but there is no plan to provide alternatives to a significant segment of people that rely on the web to interact with their favorite shows? Did I also mention that this is an international show, and Canada, Australia, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Indonesia are all included in the voting?

Amazing.

There is an address for problems voting, I would suggest that people use this when voicing their disappointment at the lack of accessibility.

From the MSN Rockstar Site FAQ:

If you have problems casting your vote and need more information on when your area should vote, please send an e-mail message with full details of your location, what time you view the show and how you tried voting to rockstarvoteinfo@MSN.com.

If you are using color-based charts and graphs to convey important information, you need to take into account that about nine to twelve percent of the male population suffers from some form of color deficiency. Some estimates place the level of color blindness as high as 20% among the white male population. However, less than one percent of women suffer from color blindness.

Most color blindness takes the form of red-green confusion, while the minor forms are mostly blue-yellow confusion. While most websites will not create large obstacles, communicating information or instructions through graphics or color codes that use rely of these colors or the difference of colors will cause confusion.

A great resource for understanding how your web pages would appear to those with color blindness is Visicheck blindness. Any obvious problems will become apparent. If you would like to explore further, Visibone provides designers with color-blindness web color charts. There are diagrams which show how those with color blindness perceive web-safe colors.

If you suspect that you or someone you know may have color blindness, here is the link to the Ishihara Test for Color Blindness.

Some things to remember:

1. Never make color the single visual cue.
2. If red, green or blue is being used as a font color for emphasis, another cue should be used, such as an underline or bold attribute.
3. Use effective color contrast in web pages and presentation materials.
4. Avoid fonts that are too decorative and require study.
5. Label graphical elements, so that users do not have to rely solely on color keys.
6. Use descriptive text near graphic images to explain the purpose of the image.

Using these elements will also create better methods for the search engines to use the information on the page. Search engines can read the color instructions in the HTML, but cannot us it as a basis for judging graphic elements. As more information is added to explain graphics and highlight specific areas of text, this will also help in naturally implementing keywords to target your specific business or venture to the search engines. It will also go far in assisting users to understand your site and your purpose.

One of the most fascinating books I’ve read is Guns, Germs and Steel. It is a historical investigation into one of the most basic questions of our world. Why were some people groups able to innovate and conquer, while others advanced to a certain point, only to be conquered? The answer might surprise you as to its simplicity, but it has to do with access to good agricultural areas and domesticated animals.

Wired has an interview with Jared Diamond, the author of the book, as PBS is currently airing a three-part series based on his book. I highly recommend it, if you have the chance to watch. You may not agree with everything, but the premise is fascinating and it may change a few of your ideas of the past (or the present).

As if I haven’t blogged about this subject enough. First, the WAI writes about it, then Internet News accuses Google of blocking visitors, and now this, thanks to Nick W and GreyHat Search Engine News.

Captcha solution?
Yahoo is attempting to help people find a way around the captcha by hiding text on the page. (Screenshot follows)

There is small, hidden text on the page reads:

Visually impaired or blind users: We can help you register. So that a customer care representative can contact you, please provide your phone number in addition to your required email address when you contact us by pasting this URL into your browser: http://add.yahoo.com/fast/help/us/edit/cgi_access

You can view the Yahoo page yourself and then press ctrl+a. Highlighting the page uncovers some very tiny text that is hidden in the page. The humor in this page is that this technique is considered search engine spam by the search engines themselves; except when they do it, we suppose.

The thought is in the right place, but the implemetation . . .
Now, I understand that this is most likely on the page for those users that rely on screen readers. I applaud Yahoo for the effort; however, there are a few additional considerations that need to be addressed.

Not all low-vision users rely on screen readers. Now, many sighted users combine screen readers with reading web pages, such as people with dyslexia or those who need assistance by reading and hearing the text. However, many low-vision users rely on a large monitor and/or with increased page magnification. They will never see the instructions on how to get past the captcha, as the captcha will block their access as well. It also difficult for low vision users or those with dyslexia to distiguish the characters in the captcha.

Either way – why not make it easier for people to find and know the options available to them? Why do those who cannot get past the captcha required to wait for a call from a Yahoo rep? What if they have a time restraint, like purchasing tickets for a concert?

While the intentions were surely good, it still separates users. It creates more questions. There are so many other options that can make the user experience better for everyone. Why not create a page and a means to get around the captcha that allows instant access? Why are the instructions for screen readers hidden? Wouldn’t the instructions help everyone, if they were available to see as well as hear? Instructions should be available for anyone to see, hear and find.

Disabled users don’t like being treated separately. Similarly, both web sites and physical buildings can change improve to increase access and it typically benefits everybody, not just those who need it.

An Arizona school is replacing textbooks with laptops in order to implement an Internet and electronic-based curriculum. Apparently, this is to keep teachers from “marching through the textbooks”. Is this the actual solution to the problem? I mean, there are very bad teachers and very good teachers – is the change of book to computer going to suddenly make a bad teacher a good teacher?

My own perceived hesitations aside – this is a great step for accessibility in the classroom. All students will have access to electronic documents and curriculum, and additional software could be loaded onto the student’s machines that require assistive technology. Not bad from that angle. This solves many problems in access and availability.

However, the cost of the laptops is $850 each, contrasted to the cost of textbooks between $500 and $600. One of my favorite cultural commentators is Neil Postman. In his book, “Building Bridges to the 18th Century,” he makes the comment that school systems all over the country are spending millions of dollars on placing computers into the classrooms. However, “there certainly does not exist any compelling evidence that any manifestation of computer technology can do for children what good, well-paid, unburdened teachers can do. So where is the outcry from teachers?”

He makes an excellent point. Everyone cheers when schools spend massive amounts of money on computers, but what if that same money were used to attract quality, well-paid teachers into the schools? What if that money were used as incentive to retain teachers whose students consistently perform well and show improvement? Instead, teachers applaud the purchasing of technology, and poor salaries and layoffs are pervasive.

Back to the Arizona plan. The most concerning thing to read is the superintendent’s statement that he’s not altogether sure how the transition will take place. Now that’s scary. Make a drastic change in curriculum with no clear direction or plan in place.

Which wraps this all up in a pretty little bow. There needs to be a clear goal in order to know if you have attained it. I constantly see this in the web marketing business. Most sites are not designed with a clear purpose. Therefore, there is no clear way to measure success, because success was not defined from the start.

Reading is waning as an activity by most Americans, which is a shame, in my opinion. From 1982 to 2002, there has been an overall loss of 20% in literary reading among Americans of all ages. However, among participants in the Talking Book program, the participants read, on average, seven times more than their sighted counterparts, around 35 books a year.

The Talking Book program is a free library service from the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), Library of Congress. The participant numbers include both talking book and Braille versions of novels; popular titles, mysteries, non-fiction. The National Library monitors requests and publishing trends before choosing a title to be added into the library. There are also book clubs for children that encourage kids to report on the books they have read in order to receive prizes and rewards.

The NLS attempts to satisfy as many patrons as possible, however there are expenses in making titles available to people in multiple formats, such as audio and Braille. Approximately 500 tiles are added to the NLS catalog annually, compared to over 300,000 titles that were added to the Library of Congress in 2002. This is why sites such as Project Gutenberg are so important - they make available accessible works of literature which can be read by screen readers.

Reading is an essential part of life, and one that should be encouraged, supported and actively pursued by all. If you can, find your local NLS library extension and volunteer or support them financially. Or, volunteer at your local school in their reading programs. Kids respond when you read to them, as they need to be brought up with an appreciation for reading. Especially in this electronic age, we cannot leave behind the simple pleasure of reading a book for enjoyment.

For what it’s worth, here are some of my highest recommendations from my library. I don’t read much non-fiction. Reality is just too interesting, I guess.
(Yes, these are affiliate links)

This has nothing to do with the web or with accessibility. But blogs are usually about people expressing their frustration about something, somebody or some event. This will follow those examples.

Over the July 4th weekend, I went to the store to get some patio supplies for a party. I was pleasantly surprised to find all of the patio decorations, tiki torches, bug spray and grill supplies discounted. However the sale signs were disconcerting - “End of Season Sale.”

Huh? End of season? It was only July 3rd.

As I turned out of the lawn and garden department I almost stumbled over a store employee stocking the shelves - WITH SCHOOL SUPPLIES! Summer’s over kids, hope you enjoyed it while it lasted. I’m not sure about you, but something just isn’t right to see “Back to School” signs and supplies on the shelves before July 4th weekend had even taken place.

Part 2
The other day I took a day off work to spend the day with my wife. My parents were watching the kids, so we had a rare day to ourselves. Of all places, my wife wanted to visit JoAnn fabrics. Guys, if you’ve never been there - you’re not missing anything. It’s a crafter’s dream and husband’s worse nightmare. There is nothing manly in that store that you can stand buy and look cool. Nothing to pass the time with even feigning interest. However, something did catch my eye - Thanksgiving decorations! It was July 8th! You have to be kidding me - is this some cruel joke? Do people really plan this far in advance?

Last winter I went through a similar experience, when I needed to find snow sleds for my kids. However it was the middle of February, and do you think anyone still had sleds? Of course not - the stores were full of summer fun and beach toys. February, and I can’t find a sled.

Are our lives being run by commerce? Are we good little consumers when we buy our Thanksgiving decorations in the middle of summer? Should we be thinking about getting to the beach or opening the pool in February? (for us northerners - no!). Our purchasing is being dictated by these conglomerate stores and their need to push products months before their time. God forbid you actually go to the store when you need something seasonal. Try to find some grilling supplies in late August, if you don’t believe me. I don’t think this has always been like this - it seems like it has been really happening recently.

On second thought, maybe I should get out early and get that wrapping paper for Christmas.