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We have received a report that eBay may have recently implemented an audio playback alternative to their CAPTCHA for use by blind and visually impaired customers. The characters are spoken with background audio to prevent recognition by scripts and other automated processes that may employ speech recognition. Blind and visually impaired eBay customers are asked… Finish Reading Visual Verification: eBay May Have Implemented Audio CAPTCHA

If you run JAWS 7.1, pick up Freedom Scientific’s first automatic update patch to fix 20 known bugs.

Google Labs has just released an experimental application of its search technology known as Google Accessible Search to provide the blind and visually impaired with a way to find the most accessible content. Like Google’s standard search engine, Accessible Search provides the most relevant results for the words typed in to its edit box. Unlike… Finish Reading Try Google Accessible Search

Your humble Blind Access Journal publisher was interviewed for this San Francisco Chronicle article entitled Google for the Blind covering today’s Google Labs release of the Accessible Search experiment. Nice to hear from Joanie, too.

We already know how the accessibility of Windows Live Messenger allows blind and visually impaired people to communicate instantaneously with millions of other computer users around the world. Now, Microsoft and Yahoo! have expanded this capability to include users of Yahoo! Messenger. That’s right! Windows Live Messenger users may now communicate seemlessly with users of… Finish Reading Microsoft Adds Yahoo! Messenger Users to Windows Live Messenger, Makes Instant Messaging Even More Accessible

I have officially become a member of BITS (Blind Information Technology Specialists), an affiliate of the American Council of the Blind. This means I have reversed my original policy of neutrality with respect to blindness organizations, choosing not to remain “on the fence” so to speak. Though I continue to believe much effective advocacy can… Finish Reading Climbing Down From Atop the Blindness Organizational Fence

Just in case anyone still thinks a process requiring manual human intervention is acceptable to provide accessibility to visual verification, please allow me to share yet another example of how this does not work for blind and visually impaired web site users. If you need Earthlink’s help, nobody is home and the company doesn’t care.… Finish Reading Visual Verification Accessibility: Nobody Home at Earthlink

Shownotes Listen as I chat about the online coverage of the recently concluded NFB and ACB blindness organization conventions. I continue to be disappointed with the complete lack of coverage provided by NFB. I also briefly touch on the safe return of the Space Shuttle Discovery and the current war in the Middle East. I… Finish Reading Online Coverage of the Blindness Conventions

Don’t miss the continuing live coverage of the 2006 convention on ACB Radio Mainstream, culminating in the banquet starting at 4:00 PM Pacific time, 7:00 PM Eastern time tonight. We at the Blind Access Journal send along our heartfelt thanks to ACB Radio for the excellent coverage of the convention. Keep up the great work!

We thank Scott Spaulding for recording and podcasting a significant amount of the 2006 NFB convention. Check out Scott’s Podcast to download the audio.