Web Site Accessibility Blog

Well, I can’t say that I’m surprised about this one. Pardon the pun, but you could “see” this coming. The Blind Access Journal is rising up to ask Google to give them access. For years, blind users have been frustrated at the inability to be a part of Google’s growing services. It was a slap in the face to the Blind community when Google celebrated Louise Braille’s birthday by using a Braille logo. The Braille Google logo was simply the last straw.

The Blind Access Journal has created an online petition for users to sign and request that Google come up with an option for their CAPTCHA (Visual Turing Test) or visual word confirmation. If you aren’t aware of what the CAPTCHA is, it is the security device that makes users type in the words and letters that are in a graphic and usually jumbled up somehow. This security technique prevents automated bots from subscribing to Google services such as Gmail, Blogger and the IM service. In using a strict visual cue, this technique also prevents low-vision users, blind, dyslexic and other visually impaired users from subscribing to the services as well.

The Press release requests that the CAPTCHA be replaced with an auditory signal as an option. While I think creating the petition to request the CAPTCHA issue be accessible, I think demanding a specific action, such as an auditory cue, doesn’t help the issue. Auditory cues can also be overcome by automated bots, just as the visual word confirmations. Security is compromised by smart bots, safe from dumb ones, but people needing accessibility features are left out in the cold.

Enter Amazon.com, who is asking for volunteers for test a new system, the Mechanical Turk as a method of screening AI from humans. I, for one, am very interested to see how this program works out. The press release from The Blind Journal then goes into detail about other tech companies that have added accessibility to their Turing tests, such as AOL, Microsoft (ouch!) and PayPal.

My concern about the demand for the auditory equivalent was calmed when I realized that the auditory test was demanded in the press release, but not the petition.

Here is the Google Accessibility Petition, simple and to the point, the way I like it:

To: Google Inc.

We, the undersigned, ask Google Inc. to “do no evil” and follow their mission statement to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” by promptly adding accessibility to their visual word verification scheme so that the blind and visually impaired are allowed to fully participate in all products and services offered by the company on terms of equality with our sighted peers.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

Short, simple and to the point.

I recommend signing it.

Here is your call to action –> sign the Google Accessibility Petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/captcha/.