Visual Verification: CAPTCHA Prevents Blind Users from Uninstalling Sponsored Version of Messenger Plus Live!

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If you are blind or visually impaired and are contemplating the installation of Messenger Plus Live! to enhance your Windows Live Messenger experience, we recommend strongly that you avoid selecting the ad supported “sponsored mode” during the installation process. If the software is installed in this mode, it is currently impossible for a blind person to remove the software from their computer due to a visual only CAPTCHA that does not provide audio playback or any other reasonable accomodations for our accessibility needs. Installation and removal of the non-sponsored version of the software continues to work well without this CAPTCHA, and this has always been the preferred way for blind or visually impaired people to run this particular application.

The following letter has now been written and posted to the Messenger Plus Live! Help and Support forum.

December 29, 2007

Dear Patchou and all other MsgPlusLive Developers,

I am writing to tell you about a critical concern facing blind and visually impaired people who install Messenger Plus Live and to ask for your help to resolve the issue in an equitable manner.

As blind computer users, we rely on a piece of assistive technology known as a screen reader. An example of this software is Window-Eyes, developed and sold by GW Micro (http://www.gwmicro.com). Most blind people install Messenger Plus Live in unsponsored mode; they have learned from the community that the ads in sponsored mode can interfere with the proper operation of this vital tool. Unfortunately, some blind users have installed the sponsored version of your software, finding that the functionality of their screen reader has been impaired, impacting the ability to use their computers in the process.

As the sponsored mode version of MSG Plus Live is currently written, a visual CAPTCHA is presented during the uninstallation process. Blind people are physically unable to see the picture of characters in a CAPTCHA, thus they are unable to solve such a challenge / response scheme. The result is that those of us who have installed the sponsored version of your software are completely unable to remove it from our computers.

Please consider resolving this critical issue as soon as possible by removing the visual CAPTCHA altogether, by implementing an audio playback CAPTCHA such as the one found at http://recaptcha.net or by using an alternative e-mail confirmation or text based challenge / response system.

Your consideration and time is appreciated, and I anticipate hearing from someone on the Messenger Plus Live development team as soon as possible.

Best regards for a happy New Year,

Darrell Shandrow

Accessibility Evangelist

We ask all of you who read Blind Access Journal, blind and sighted alike, to visit this forum thread and lend your voice to our request to have the visual CAPTCHA made accessible for everyone, including those of us whom happen to be blind.

The Christmas Eve Winter Cafe in New England

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Hello Everyone,
 
We hope all of you and your families are enjoying a festive, happy holiday season and wish all of you a merry Christmas. Coming up at 22:00 UTC (2:00 PM Pacific, 3:00 PM Mountain, 4:00 PM Central or 5:00 PM Eastern time) we are bringing all of you a special treat. In addition to your favorite modern and traditional Christmas music, you may hear from our nieces and other relatives here in New England. We may also bring to you some sound seeing from the Christmas Revels, sledding and possibly other fun surprises along the way. Of course, we’ll have all your favorite holiday deserts and other yummy treats in the virtual cafe. You definitely won’t want to miss this special Christmas Eve show.
 
We hope you and your family will join us and our family in the cafe coming up in approximately 3.5 hours from now right here on ACB Radio Interactive. Simply visit http://interactive.acbradio.org to listen to the show.
 
Merry Christmas,
 
Darrell and Karen Shandrow
The Desert Cafe
 
 
 

In Memorial of My Sister, Michele Yvonne Sinnock

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My sister, Michele, passed away after a short battle with lung cancer last Thursday. The obituary was published in the State Journal-Register, an Illinois newspaper. Believe it or not, I’m still at a complete loss for words at this difficult time. The following short poem was printed on cards handed out at her visitation.

In Loving Memory Of

Michele Yvonne Sinnock

He Only Takes The Best

god saw she was getting tired

and a cure was not to be.

So he put his arms around her

And whispered, “Come with me.”

With tear-filled eyes we watched her

suffer and fade away.

Although we loved her deeply,

we could not make her stay.

A golden heart stopped beating,

hard-working hands put to rest.

god broke our hearts to prove to us,

He only takes the best.

Author Unknown

Born: July 20, 1957 in Champagne, Illinois

Entered Into Rest: November 29, 2007 in Tonopah, Arizona

Visitation

12:00-4:00 P.M.

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Menke Funeral Home

Sun City, Arizona

Concluding services to be private.

Jim Fruchterman speaking tonight at talking communities

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Tonight Jim Fruchterman, Benetech CEO and Founder of Bookshare.org, is the
Guest of Friends of Bookshare Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Topic: The Future of Bookshare.org

We are especially pleased to announce that next Tuesday the Friends of
Bookshare will be privileged to have Jim Fruchterman, the founder of
Bookshare.org, as its honored guest. During his presentation, he will
explore his vision for the future, will discuss the challenges of
delivering high quality textbooks while maintaining the user-created spirit
of Bookshare.org, and will talk about the expansion to serve all students
with print disabilities in the U.S., while starting to support International
Bookshare.org, as well.

In the blindness community, Jim Fruchterman is truly a legend. Not only did
he create a massive, not for profit, web-based library of downloadable
accessible eBooks, made legally available to blind , visually impaired and
print handicapped people but he invented the well-known Open Book reading
access machines, using technology originally meant for the military. Much of
his time is devoted to his responsibilities as CEO of Benetech, but also in
assisting numerous human rights organizations throughout the world. In all
of his endeavors, Jim's explicit goal has been to use the power of
technology to serve humanity.

Date: Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Time: 6:00 p.m. Pacific, 7:00 p.m. Mountain, 8:00 p.m. Central and
9:00 p.m. Eastern

Where: Friends of Bookshare Community Room at:
http://conference321.com/masteradmin/room.asp?id=rs7867a2369e0e

There are no membership requirements, no direct costs, no need to
pre-register, and no passwords required. All you need is a PC running
Windows 2000 or later, an Internet connection, a sound card, and speakers.
Since this is an audio conference, a microphone will be needed to allow you
to interact audibly with the presenter and each other. However, text chat is
also available.

If you are a first-time user of the Accessible World online conferencing
software, there is a small, safe software program that you need to download
and then run. A link to the software is available on the entry screen of
each room.

Note: Archives of events are available for download at:
http://www.friendsofbookshare.org

Media Contact:
Pat (Patricia) Price, Planning Committee Chair
Friends of Bookshare
http://www.friendsofbookshare.org
317-254-1185
pat@patprice.org

Happy Thanksgiving!

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We at Blind Access Journal wish all of you a very happy Thanksgiving Day.  Let’s all give thanks for our families, friends and all good things we enjoy, while moving forward toward even brighter days ahead!

Blind Bay Area Residents and Bloglines Users Urged to Participate in Survey to Promote Accessibility

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If you are both a resident in the San Francisco Bay area and a Bloglines user, we ask that you urgently complete this short survey giving the Bloglines folks feedback on how you use RSS feed readers from a blindness perspective. There have now been several updates made to the Bloglines Beta; while several of us have been supplying feedback, there have been no noticeable improvements in its accessibility. Bloglines is one of those critical resources for many of us, so let’s make sure our voices are heard.

Categories Uncategorized

AxsJAX Brings Accessibility Features to Web 2.0

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I have just one critical question, my friends. Why haven't the "leading"
screen reader makers incorporated any of this technology into their
products?

Wired.com News
Thursday, November 15, 2007

AxsJAX Brings Accessibility Features to Web 2.0

By Scott Gilbertson

Google Reader's recent makeover wasn't just skin deep. Most people probably
didn't notice it, but the revamped Google Reader also added an accessibility
layer which makes the app screen reader friendly.

LINK:
http://firevox.clcworld.net/

Web 2.0 sites may be slick and easy to use for most people, but such sites
often lack accessibility support, making them difficult, if not impossible,
to use with screen readers and other assistive technologies.

In an effort to improve accessibility on AJAX-heavy websites, Google
recently released the framework behind the new Google Reader tools as an
open source project dubbed AxsJAX. The code has been reworked and most of
the Google-specific features removed, which means it should work for just
about any site that chooses to use it.

LINK:
http://code.google.com/p/google-axsjax/

AxsJAX is designed to enhance the accessibility of AJAX applications.
Charles Chen, who added the accessibility features to Google Reader and
develops Fire Vox, an assistive device friendly add-on for Firefox, writes
on the Google Code Blog:

Based on the experience of access-enabling Reader, we have now refactored
the code to come up with a common JavaScript framework for enhancing the
accessibility of AJAX applications. This framework is called AxsJAX, and it
was refined in the process of access-enabling Web Search.

We're now excited to open-source this framework since we believe that there
is nothing Google-specific in the techniques we have implemented. We invite
the Web developer community to help us collectively define a robust
framework for rapid prototyping of accessibility enhancements to Web 2.0
applications.

LINK:
http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2007/11/introducing-axsjax-access-enabling-ajax.html

AxsJAX features can be accessed by users in several ways: as a bookmarklets,
using Greasemonkey or through Fire Vox. The underlying code implements the
W3C's WAI-ARIA spec (Web Accessibility Initiative – Accessible Rich Internet
Applications). Rather than simply providing assistive device users with a
non-AJAX page as is the standard practice, ARIA makes the results of AJAX
calls accessible to screen readers. Check out the ARIA roadmap for more
details.

LINK:
http://www.w3.org/TR/aria-roadmap/

If you'd like to know more about the AxsJAX framework, have a read through
the documentation on the Google Code project page.

LINK:
http://code.google.com/p/google-axsjax/

SOURCE
http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/11/axsjax-brings-a.html

Visual Verification: Slashdot Adds Accessible CAPTCHA, Allows Blind Readers to Create Accounts and Post Comments

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We thank Rachel for her report that Slashdot has now enabled full participation by their blind and visually impaired readers by adding an audio CAPTCHA for creating accounts and posting comments. This issue was filed as a priority 5 bug on August 27, and is reported to have been resolved sometime in October. We thank the Slashdot folks for fully opening their doors to the blind and visually impaired.

Watch Your Keys; JAWS Activation Issues Could be a Job Killer!

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Imagine this nightmare situation! You work nights and/or weekends. One Saturday morning, you start the JAWS-equipped computer on your desk only to find that, for some mysterious reason, JAWS has decided it is no longer authorized. Even worse, since you have JAWS authorized on three computers, you have no additional activations available. It is time to contact Freedom Scientific, right? Wrong! Freedom Scientific is not open during late evenings or on weekends and holidays! You’ll just have to wait till Monday for Freedom Scientific staff to fix the problem! In the meantime, JAWS will run only in 40 minute demonstration mode. It will be necessary to completely reboot your computer 12 times during your eight hour shift. Will your employer find that an acceptable loss of productivity? What if you are an emergency dispatcher, where your ability to correctly and efficiently process each incoming call may be literally a matter of life and death?

It is long past time for Freedom Scientific to come up with a licensing scheme that protects their precious software while ensuring the highest possible availability to its legitimate, paying customers! An excellent example of a reasonably workable scheme would seem to be the new user-centered licensing system recently implemented by Code Factory. Please, Freedom Scientific, if not Code Factory’s model, then come up with a similarly reasonable scheme to protect everyone’s interests. Most users are not going to be highly technical. They’re just not going to be constantly watching FSActivate.com to see if they have an extra key available, just in case the worst happens. Instead, blind employees need reasonable assurances that, barring some sort of catastrophe, their screen reader isn’t going to be the tool that lets them down when they start their work day. Doesn’t JAWS still stand for Job Access with Speech?

Coming up on Main Menu and Main Menu Live for the week of October 24

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Hello Everyone,
 
We have a brand new Main Menu and Main Menu Live for you all this week!
 
During the first hour on Main Menu, Dean Martineau of Top Dot Enterprises demonstrates Jamal Mazrui’s FileDir accessible file management utility.  After that, listen to Matthew Horsepool’s Newsbriefs to catch up on technology news from a blindness perspective.
 
During the second hour of Main Menu Live, join our panel of experts (Jeff Bishop, Darrell Shandrow, Don Barrett, Rick Harmon and Steve Bauer) for an exciting discussion of GoldWave, Studio Recorder, Sound Forge, Total Recorder and possibly other audio editing software applications.  If you are a blind or visually impaired audio engineer, podcaster or otherwise are involved with digital audio production in either a hobby or professional capacity, you’re sure to learn something new by listening to and participating in this show.
 
Here is how to participate in the show:
 
The number to call into the show is 866-400-5333.
You may email your questions to: mainmenu@acbradio.org
You may also interact with the show via MSN (Windows Live) Messenger. The MSN Messenger ID to add is: mainmenu@acbradio.org
 
Would you like to interact with a group of Main Menu listeners about the topics heard on Main Menu and Main Menu Live? You can do this by joining the Main Menu Friends email list. The address to subscribe is: main-menu-subscribe@googlegroups.com. Come join an already lively group of users.
 
Would you like to subscribe to podcast feeds for Main Menu and Main Menu Live? The RSS feeds to add to your podcatching application are:
 
Main Menu -http://www.acbradio.org/podcasts/mainmenu
Main Menu Live -http://www.acbradio.org/podcasts/mainmenulive
 
Main Menu and Main Menu Live can be heard on Tuesday evenings at 9:00 Eastern, 6:00 Pacific, and at 1 universal (GMT) on Wednesday mornings on the ACB Radio Main Stream channel.
 
Follow this link to listen to the show:
 
http://www.acbradio.org/pweb/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=8
 
Jeff Bishop and Darrell Shandrow
The Main Menu Production Team