Now that Google has changes its policies and added an accessible alternative, I thought that others would fall in line. Wow, was I wrong. In the past few weeks I have been overwhelmed with CAPTCHA’s as I have opened accounts at many social media sites.
One of the most egregious was at Yahoo, which had an accessible alternative in the past, but seems to have dismissed it in order to gain access to Yahoo! Groups. I guess the blind have no business over at Yahoo Groups? Is that the message?
Fortunately, there was one CAPTCHA that rose above them all. A new social media site, Zoints has the best CAPTCHA alternative I have seen yet - a simple logic puzzle that requires the user to select two items that are edible out of a list of five - very simple, and it accomplishes the goal of the CAPTCHA -
(click to view larger image)
Here’s my rant:
By the way, by definition (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) if the CAPTCHA does not allow blind users to access the site, then it has not done it’s job. Most offensively, you have called the blind users non-human by using an ineffective and poorly designed test that does NOT distinguish computer from human. ’nuff said.
Here now is the circus of CAPTCHA participants:
First up, Yahoo Groups. Not only is there a link for more information about the CAPTCHA, which I though would provide an alternative. It explains the need for the CAPTCHA, what it does - but provides NO ALTERNATIVE!
Next up - Social Media bookmark phenomenon, Digg, does not allow blind users to use the service.
And finally, MySpace (big surprise). I guess no blind people are allowed in MySpace - no big deal, it’s only porn anyway, isn’t it?
That’s it for today’s edition of Circus of CAPTCHA’s.Be sure to let the creators of Zoints know that you appreciate their creative, inclusive approach to the real purpose of the CAPTCHA.
Yahoo’s CAPTCHA provides the URL to a contact form in the ALT text, as well as in white text on a white background on the help page (so those without screen readers but with high-contrast custom stylesheets can find it, I can only imagine). Still leaves anyone who’s just using a screen magnifier out in the cold, though… not to mention that the contact address is just as easy for spambots to find as if the link had been left out in the open.
Comment by codeman38 — July 1, 2006 @ 11:15 am
Thought you guys might like this.
GigoIt’s HumanAuth is based off the ideas presented by KittenAuth.com. HumanAuth supports ADA and Section 508 requirements, increased security and includes watermarked images with random positioning. HumanAuth ensures that an actual human is using your site without forcing them to read distorted CAPTCHA text.
http://www.gigoit.org/humanauth/
Comment by GigoIt — July 4, 2006 @ 6:37 am
There’s absolutely no reason why CAPTCHAs have to be graphic-based, except that it’s easy. Asking the user a simple question based on the content of the site (”What is the name of this blog?”) or something that requires them to interpret a question (”What do the letters B, L, O and G spell?”) will usually do the trick. If everyone has unique questions on their own blogs, it’d make it very difficult for spammers to collect and submit the right answers automatically. They’d probably try anyway; you could pre-empt this by randomizing the questions and question types, or changing the question every week. It’s not that hard to come up with something that can defeat a simple script…
Comment by Kirsten — July 4, 2006 @ 12:27 pm
Hi:
I don’t know if I’m on the right track or not or if what I’m doing is not acceptable to the visually impaired, but it seems that CAPTCHA’a here to stay, at least for a while. So, I thought that I would put my limited programming skills to work and see if I could create a simple solution.
I want to provide the visually impaired an audio solution. In that regard, please review:
http://xn--ovg.com/snd1
Keep in mind, this only a first step. It’s not the final product. If approved, the final product I will publicly post for free.
If you have any suggestions or comments, please feel free to send them to me directly: tedd@sperling.com.
Thanks.
tedd
Comment by Tedd Sperling — July 7, 2006 @ 9:59 am
I agree that the Zoint’s CAPTCHA is one of the best I’ve seen too. However, they should have a list of different questions that change with each refresh. At present it looks as though they change it as few times as once a day - any spammer that really wants to spam this site will just programme in that variable for the particular day. Apart from that it seems good.
Another problem is making these questions as easy as possible so that you can include users with learning difficulties and the like.
Comment by Emma — July 24, 2006 @ 11:22 am
I’m in touch with several blind people who are unhappy with the Yahoo! CAPTCHA nightmare. Well, the question won’t leave me alone - “What then shall we do about it?”
So far, contacting Yahoo! directly has proved to be a wild goose chase. Their preferred ways of keeping customers at bay is 1 - refer them to the help pages and (2) answering "customer
care" queries with automated responses based on, presumably, key words in your e-mail. This is in short a pile of pants, and won’t get an answer to an awkward question such as “how does a blind person get access to Yahoo!?”.Is it possible to find a humanoid who actually works for Yahoo? or all of them called Eliza or Robbie, and clank when they walk?
Perhaps some industrial-grade Googling could unearth their CEO or some other worthy, who should be ashamed of themselves for excluding millions of us poor blindies from their services.
Pretty clearly the whole thing is unnecessary when Google (a fierce competitor!) can very quickly respond to the disquiet about their own CAPTCHAs in the blind universe, and other people, as we read here, are finding other answers.
Maybe someone is already co-ordinating some action on this, in whcih case I’d be happy to know, or the rest of us might be able to start something.
I’d welcome any constructive ideas, so feel free to e-mail me at vip_uc@yahoo.com - yes, my Yahoo! account. The irony’s not lost.
Kick out the jambs, brothers and sisters!
Comment by Vince T. — September 24, 2006 @ 5:30 pm
Captchas…
“Captchas” är ett stort problem för blinda och synskadade personer eftersom de oftast är grafiska. De behöver dock inte vara det, och det finns faktiskt platser där alternativa former förekommer. Nu har Google infört ett alternativ ……
Trackback by Fruitbox - inte bara en fruktskål — September 29, 2006 @ 11:54 am
The internet is a visual medium that due to technological advances is becoming increasingly available to the Blind which is a great thing… however it was not designed for the blind… this is NOT discriminatory against the blind… it is just fact.
“Most offensively, you have called the blind users non-human by using an ineffective and poorly designed test that does NOT distinguish computer from human. ’nuff said.”
This is the most laughable argument I’ve heard… CAPTCHA does help distinguish computer from human… what it does NOT do is distinguish computer from Certain Disabled Humans…
Do you expect all web developers on the internet, which by the way is a highly visual medium to cater for ALL human disabilities… try closer to home… is your home FULLY disabled friendly…? I would guess probably not because to do so is unrealistic…. and it is unrealistic to shout down CAPTCHA users just because it dasadvantages a very small section of the human population.
I’m not anti-blind…. I wlould welcome ALL users disabled or otherwise however please don’t expect me to bend over backward for them… my web space is my virtual home and if it it’s not blind friendly then I have only one thing to say… GET OVER IT!!!.
Comment by Jim — October 17, 2007 @ 12:18 pm
Hmm…. I see you deleted (or refused to post) my counter argument… what you show here is that your argument is flawed and you do not welcome criticism of your view on the use of CAPTCHA images. Blogs like this are pointless and only good for spammers as you are obviously unwilling to let EVERYONE’s perspective be heard.
Comment by JimboJetset — October 18, 2007 @ 7:21 am
Hello. I do think captcha is a good thing because it can keep out spam and stuff of that nature. Ok lets say you have a websight that is your own sight and its not really accessable to a blind user. Ok who cares it’s a little sight. but a large corporation like myspace should have some way of letting the users bypass the captchas like facebook does where you can varify your account with them. I am a blind user of myspace and when i run in to captchas i am stuck because as you probably know screen reading software can not read the immages. Captchas were not such a bad thing on myspace 2 years ago when all you had to do was use it to sign up. But recently you have to type in a captcha everytime you post a comment or message. That even for sighted users is pointless. Any questions or ideas about this would be welcomed. You can email me at blakehardin5487@gmail.com, or aim me at blindboyblake1, or MSN ddw4250@yahoo.com.
Comment by Blake — May 14, 2008 @ 12:44 am