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CAPTCHA

Visual Verification: FeedBurner’s Audio CAPTCHA Appears to be Broken

August 17, 2007 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

After attempting to subscribe to this blog via e-mail using the FeedBurner widget for this purpose, I have discovered that the supplied audio CAPTCHA appears to be broken. No matter how many times I listen to and enter the numbers, I am unable to complete the subscription process! A message has already been sent to support@feedburner.com concerning this serious problem. I urge all of you to do likewise. Let’s get as much visibility to this issue as possible so the FeedBurner folks will fix it right away!

Update: A FeedBurner support representative tells me that the problem appears with both the audio and visual CAPTCHA. It involves a timeout issue with certain browser and Internet service provider combinations. While it works fine with Internet Explorer 7.0 for one user, it works only with Firefox 2.0 for another. Those encountering this ongoing inability to complete e-mail subscriptions should include their browser version and the name of their Internet service provider in messages to the support team.

Visual Verification: Accessible CAPTCHA Options for vBulletin Forums Now and in the Future

August 12, 2007 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

vBulletin, a leading provider of online web based forum software, currently features an inaccessible CAPTCHA that provides no reasonable accomodations for blind and visually impaired users. This means that all forums based on vBulletin’s software currently show us the “No Blind People Allowed” sign during the registration process.

At this time, there is one way for forum administrators to work around this barrier. An independent developer has made a RECAPTCHA modification available to licensed vBulletin customers. This modification enables use of the ReCAPTCHA service, which includes an audio version of the CAPTCHA.

A reliable source at vBulletin reports that the upcoming version 3.7 release of the software will provide alternatives to the image verification process in the form of a “simple question” text based CAPTCHA. No date has been given for the 3.7 release at this time.

We ask all vBulletin forum administrators to promptly implement the ReCAPTCHA modification now and to utilize the text based CAPTCHA upon the release of version 3.7. Please make these straightforward modifications to your forums so that the blind and visually impaired will be allowed full participation.

Visual Verification: Urgent Request to Test Browser Compatibility with Audio CAPTCHA Implementations

August 11, 2007 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

Recently, we have discovered a rather disturbing trend. Even in cases where sites do provide us with an audio CAPTCHA, it does not always work. In many scenarios, no audio is heard at all! The ability to hear these audio CAPTCHAs often depends on which browser (Firefox or Internet Explorer) and which version of that browser is in use. It is absolutely critical for us to collect some test data in an attempt to resolve this issue in an effective manner. Please follow these steps and report your results as indicated:

  1. Visit Digg – register and attempt to solve the audio CAPTCHA.
  2. Were you able to hear the audio? Please note the answer to this question.
  3. Please indicate the name and version of the web browser in use when attempting to solve this audio CAPTCHA (Firefox 2.0, Internet Explorer 7.0).
  4. Please indicate the name and version of the screen reader in use (JAWS 8.0, System Access 2.3, Window-Eyes 6.1).
  5. Visit What is reCAPTCHA? and attempt to solve the audio CAPTCHA.
  6. Were you able to hear the audio? Please note the answer to this question.
  7. Please indicate the name and version of the web browser in use when attempting to solve this audio CAPTCHA (Firefox 2.0, Internet Explorer 7.0).
  8. Please indicate the name and version of the screen reader in use (JAWS 8.0, System Access 2.3, Window-Eyes 6.1).

Please provide your test results, along with any potentially helpful additional details, in comments to this blog post. Your active participation in this testing is absolutely critical in order to make sure that the audio CAPTCHA solutions we get are actually workable for the vast majority of blind and visually impaired computer users.

American Council of the Blind (ACB) Resolution 07-21 on CAPTCHA Accessibility

August 11, 2007 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

R07-21 Captcha

  • WHEREAS, proprietors of websites have found it necessary to use graphical image verification (CAPTCHA) to enhance website security and to ensure consumer privacy; and
  • Whereas, the use of CAPTCHA on websites has recently increased for purposes relating to identity verification; and
  • Whereas the images and codes that are used for CAPTCHA are inaccessible to people  who are blind and visually impaired; and
  • Whereas, title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) which addresses the obligation of places of public accommodation to make their goods and services accessible to people with disabilities has not been consistently applied to websites;

Now therefore, be it resolved by the American Council of the Blind, in convention assembled, this 6th  day  of July, 2007, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Minneapolis, Minnesota, that this organization strongly urges the United States Department of Justice to apply Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act   to website proprietors who deny access to their websites by users who are blind and visually impaired, through use of inaccessible CAPTCHA and to establish appropriate enforcement mechanisms that assure compliance with web access guidelines by website proprietors.

Be it further resolved that officers, directors and staff of ACB are directed to engage in consultation and to provide technical assistance to website designers, and standard-setting bodies to ameliorate the current egregious barriers to web access caused by current applications of CAPTCHA.

Visual Verification: THaCAA – Telling Humans and Computers Apart Automatically

August 7, 2007 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

As we already know, there are more options besides audio and visual CAPTCHA that may be used to tell the difference between computers and humans. The open source project THaCAA – Telling Humans and Computers Apart Automatically represents another way to protect valuable web site resources without excluding anyone based on sensory factors such as hearing or sight.

Visual Verification: CAPTCHA Accessibility and the Yahoo! Petition Discussed in Depth on Security Now Podcast

August 1, 2007 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

We thank Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson for reading an e-mail I sent them concerning the need for CAPTCHA accessibility on episode 102 of their Security Now! podcast and discussing it in depth. This show even has an excellent transcript that serves to meet the needs of the deaf or those who would just rather read instead of listen. This is exactly the kind of positive exposure we need to seek for the CAPTCHA accessibility issue on a much more frequent basis. Let’s all sign the Yahoo! Accessibility Improvement Petition and take all possible actions to spread the word as far and wide as possible!

Audio Promos Now Available for the Yahoo! Accessibility Improvement Petition

July 29, 2007 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

Thanks to Steve Bauer of ACB Radio fame, the following audio promos for the Yahoo! Accessibility Improvement Petition are now available for podcasts, streaming Internet broadcasts and all other audio programs where running public service announcements may be appropriate:

Once again, we thank Steve Bauer (The Jazz Man) for his hard work on these excellent promos!

The Subtle Differences Online Petitions Can Make in Accessibility Advocacy Issues

July 27, 2007 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

As I continue to promote the Yahoo! Accessibility Improvement Petition initiative, I receive occasional private and public comments from those who wonder whether these online petitions really can make a difference or just represent a waste of everyone’s time. Of course, I feel they can serve to effectively support taking positive action on the accessibility issue in question, even when the differences made are subtle.

It has been my experience that the following positive things happen when an online petition is initiated and widely disseminated:

  • The petition acts as a single rallying point within the blind community around which debate and discussion takes place.
  • It is easier to convince blind and sighted people to show their support for the needed accessibility accomodation by signing a simple petition than it is to ask them to take more complex actions such as those involved in traditional letter writing campaigns.
  • Individuals, organizations and even the media will, sometimes, take their own initiative, asking questions of the company being petitioned.
  • The costs for organizing, promoting and bringing an online petition to its ultimate conclusion are quite low, even fitting within the budget of one blind couple not receiving any other means of financial support for such activities.
  • People who sign the petition often add comments, which can also serve as testimonial evidence explaining the reasons why the requested action is needed. Many signers of the Yahoo! Accessibility Improvement Petition, for instance, are telling the world that the company’s representatives usually do not answer requests from blind and visually impaired people for assistance with the features protected by the visual CAPTCHA.

Are online petitions the right path to the promised land of resolving all accessibility issues? I’m absolutely sure they are not! Instead, they can represent a good first step in the process. The Google Word Verification Accessibility Petition garnered almost 5,000 signatures. Did it make a difference? Did the decision-makers at Google consider 4,725 signers sufficient representation of support to warrant creating the audio word verification scheme that now permits most blind and visually impaired people admission to all Google services? We just do not have these answers. Some tell me the petition made a difference, while others tell me it did not. The petition did evoke discussion of the CAPTCHA issue inside and outside the blind community, thousands of blind and sighted people indicated their support by signing and the concerns of the blind regarding the harm caused by the lock out imposed by visual CAPTCHA were raised effectively and repeatedly in the sighted world. The point is, we did something. We asked Google to make their visual verification more accessible to the blind, and it happened! The petition was open for only four months when Google roled out its audio CAPTCHA. The point isn’t the number of signatures on the petition or, even, whether the petition made the ultimate difference. It may have worked together with a couple of other efforts at contacting Google executives concerning the issue. In any case, we won our right to access Google, educated the public about the pitfalls of visual only CAPTCHA and may have ultimately helped to increase the availability of accessible web sites as well as commercial and free tools including audio or text based CAPTCHA for use by developers! Whether direct or indirect, isn’t that a great accomplishment for a grassroots advocacy effort?

It is time for all of us to get the job done once again! Right now, the Yahoo Accessibility Improvement Petition has 609 signatures. Reliable sources tell me that decision-makers at Yahoo! are already aware of the existence of this petition, and that implementation of an audio CAPTCHA is now being considered. The question is apparently one of priorities. The company’s unworkable scheme has been in existance for five years now. Let’s not allow this lock out to continue for another five years or longer! Yahoo! is watching us! Let’s all sign this petition right away, get our family and friends to do likewise and publicize this initiative as effectively as possible! Please feel free to contact me with any questions regarding this critical accessibility evangelism campaign.

Visual Verification: Slashdot Persists with "No Blind People Allowed" Sign While Ignoring Requests for Assistance!

July 26, 2007 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

Slashdot, a recognize source of news for technology enthusiasts and professionals, is an example of a site that claims to provide a manual intervention path for their inaccessible CAPTCHA. The CAPTCHA is used to protect the account creation process and prevent comment spam. Visually impaired users are directed to send e-mail to pater@slashdot.org to receive assistance.

Over two and a half days ago, I sent an e-mail to pater@slashdot.org asking for help to create a Slashdot account. Since then, I have sent two more messages, all of which have gone completely unanswered. While Slashdot allows sighted users instant access to everything, blind users must wait and are not allowed to participate at all when Slashdot staff fail to respond to requests for assistance. Slashdot is yet another example of a web site where a manual process of providing access to CAPTCHA simply does not work. Only an automated reasonable accomodation, such as an audio or text CAPTCHA, is sufficient to guarantee equal participation for blind and visually impaired users and tear down the “No Blind People Allowed” sign.

In another interesting development, there have been at least three attempts to submit a story covering the Yahoo! Accessibility Improvement Petition, all of which have been ignored by Slashdot. Are the Slashdot folks afraid to cover this story, knowing that their own CAPTCHA is inadequate? Come on, Slashdot, do the right thing already! Tear down your “No Blind People Allowed” sign!

Visual Verification: FEMA’s Example Shows One Way to Do it Right for Everyone

July 24, 2007 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

The Federal Emergency Management Agency appears to have learned its lesson after Hurricane Katrina, where it did not permit blind and visually impaired citizens to complete online applications for assistance due to the inaccessibility of its visual verification scheme. The government agency has since done a 180 degree turn, providing a text based CAPTCHA that permits access to everyone, regardless of sensory disability. The FEMA eServices Application Suite represents a wonderful example of reasonably accomodating both the need to protect online resources and the need to permit access to those resources for all humans, regardless of disability.