The W3C/WAI Working Draft "Inaccessibility of Visually-Oriented Anti-Robot
Tests: Problems and Alternatives" provides some background on accessibility
problems with Captchas, and could be used as a reference when contacting
organizations which use Captchas in inaccessible ways.
http://www.w3.org/TR/turingtest/
It describes barriers to accessibility in the visual Captchas that you
describe, and also explores a variety of alternative Captchas -- some of
which can also present barriers to accessibility.
Comments are always welcome -- the "Status" section of the document
indicates where to send comments. We may do an updated version of the
document at some point.
Regards,
- Judy
At 04:01 PM 4/23/2005 -0400, Joanmarie Diggs wrote:
>If you are like most people, you've probably never heard of a "captcha."
>But if you've ever registered for a free service online, there's a good
>chance you've seen one. The most frequently-used captchas are pictures of
>somewhat distorted letters and/or numbers. You, the computer user seeking
>to register for the service, are told to "type the characters you see in
>this picture." By successfully completing this task, you are proving that
>you are a human being and not a computer program seeking to exploit the
>service in question. Of course what you're really proving is that you are a
>*sighted* human being -- or someone with access to a sighted human being.
>Captchas significantly limit equal access to information for users who are
>blind or visually impaired.
>
>Captchas -- completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and
>humans apart -- are becoming more and more common thanks to the
>proliferation of spam. First there was email spam, then instant messaging
>spam, and now -- believe it or not -- blog spam. I don't like spam any more
>than you do and believe that it is in everyone's best interest that spammers
>be thwarted. Most people agree. And that's why, when Google introduced a
>captcha as a requirement for creating a new account at blogger.com, the
>blog-using public was thrilled. The problem is, of course, that a blind
>computer user wishing to start a blog no longer can -- at least not without
>sighted assistance. And adding this requirement to blogger.com is not
>Google's only use of captcha; simply their most recent. A blind user
>wanting to sign up for Google News Alerts, which is a very useful way to
>access the information you want or need, must get sighted assistance. The
>same is true for using Google's newest tool: My Search History.
>
>Google is not the only company to implement the use of captchas. For
>instance, Microsoft requires them of anyone wishing to sign up for a Hotmail
>account; Yahoo does the same for their email service. But Microsoft and
>Yahoo provide alternatives for users with visual impairments. Microsoft's
>alternative is to provide a link labeled "I can't see this picture." Follow
>it and you'll receive an auditory representation of the characters on the
>screen. This, of course, does not remove the access barrier for users who
>also have a hearing impairment, but at least it's a step in the right
>direction. The alternative provided by Yahoo is to have the user fill out a
>form requesting that a customer service representative contact him/her by
>phone. This, of course, means that the visually impaired user does not have
>immediate access, but again, it's a step in the right direction. Google
>does not provide any such alternative: You either type the characters on
>the screen, or you don't get to use the service. Period.
>
>There are undoubtedly other companies which have implemented captchas
>without an alternative means of access, and that must certainly be
>addressed. But Google has become a leader in the field of web-based access
>to, and communication of, information. As a result, their use of captcha
>means that users who are blind or visually impaired are denied access to one
>of the most widely-used services available. And as a leader, what Google
>implements is more likely to be implemented by others. That is why I feel it
>is critical for Google to understand that the use of captcha without an
>alternative means of access is not only wrong -- or to use Google's term,
>"evil," but it is in direct violation of their corporate mission "to
>organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and
>useful."
>
>Prior to the implementation of captcha on Blogger, I had written Google
>about this issue, and I know a few others have as well. Apparently we were
>not heard -- or if we were heard, the needs of the few users who are blind
>were outweighed by the needs of the many users who are affected by the very
>real problem of spam. That is why I'm asking for your help. Google needs
>to hear from all of us. And not just individual consumers, family members,
>and service providers, but the companies for which we work, and the
>organizations to which we belong. If we can take a large enough stand to
>get noticed, perhaps we can put a stop to this latest, growing barrier to
>access.
>
>Ways to contact Google:
>1. Send feedback to blogger support:
>http://www.blogger.com/problem.g?skiplogin=yes
>2. Send feedback to Google Accounts support (signing up for an account
>requires passing the captcha test): mailto:[log in to unmask]
>3. Send feedback to Google labs about My Search History, the latest (and
>highly-publicized) Google tool that requires a Google Account:
>mailto:[log in to unmask]
>4. Write, call, fax Google Headquarters:
>1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
>Mountain View, CA 94043
>phone: 650-623-4000
>fax: 650-618-1499
>
>Thank you for your time.
>--Joanie
--
Judy Brewer +1.617.258.9741 http://www.w3.org/WAI
Director, Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
MIT/CSAIL Building 32-G530
32 Vassar Street
Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
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