[Cabs-talk] Capcha

[Justin Harford]

Good morning CABS

In light of the issues concerns brought up regarding the captcha that  
we wanted to post I would like to say a few things with the purpose of  
explaining myself and walking away with my dignity intact..

First to answer the question of whether captcha is really necessary,  
the consensus among web developers is that it is, and not to keep out  
blind people or blind/deaf people as is the feeling in some parts, but  
to keep out spambots which may easily post messages to a form as well  
as any human if no precautions are taken.  It was expressed that  
captcha is consisting of visual images that blind people cannot  
access, yet this is not the definition of captcha.  A captcha is  
merely a challenge that the user is put to in order to send a form.   
It is supposed to be a challenge that only a human could complete.  It  
could be visual as most are, but it can be other things too.  I did a  
captcha on a disability related sight that was a math problem.

I had selected this captcha keeping our blind users in mind.  I myself  
use a screen reader and could speak of ample experiences in which, if  
not for the small bit of vision I possess, I would have been cut out  
from a number of things.  And no, the fact that I am a partial does  
not minimize the outrage I feel when I see a captcha that is just an  
image.

As a result of this awareness, I took pains to make sure that if A  
captcha were to be implemented that it would be not only accessible to  
a blind user, but pleasant and easy to use.  The one I selected gives  
you clips from old movies and radio shows and has you copy the words  
you hear into a field.  You don't have to get them all right.  It  
automatically routs your cursor to the edit field so you don't have to  
fumble about trying to find the edit field as the captcha is being  
spoken.  In addition, the text that people input with this captcha  
goes towards an effort to digitalize old books and audio in a text  
format, another positive for the blind.  Thus I hope you would  
understand my excitement at finding such an option.

However, while I do think that most of the arguments made against this  
captcha are unfounded, there is one important point still standing,  
the issue for deaf and blind users.  In the sight that hosted this  
captcha, they mention this as well, and that alternatives like email  
authentication should be offered.  .

I still sort of think that we should have an accessible captcha as it  
sets an example for other developers to follow.  I can promise you  
right away that you will not convince many developers to compromise  
the security of their websites altogether by simply leaving captcha  
out, much better to show them how blind people can manage such  
security implementations.  is there no way we could set up an  
alternative for deaf blind?  Or even better, set up a captcha that  
asks basic math problems like that one I tried a while back?

Meanwhile, I have deleted the link to the form on our contacts page,  
thus making it impossible for anyone to access the form from our home  
page.  If anyone still cares to give input on the matter, the form can  
be still found directly at:

http://www.nfbcal.org/cabs/contact/contactform.php

Eventually I will just delete it from the server.

When I found that option, I was just so overly excited at how much  
better it was from other accessible captchas I had done, that I just  
wanted to show it off to people.  I apologize for whatever  
inconveniences it may have caused and hope that at least those who  
tried the form might see where I was initially coming from.

Regards
Justin Harford
CABS Secretary
On Nov 11, 2009, at 11:29 AM, Michael Peterson wrote:

> Hi Justin I haven't looked yet and that might answer my question.  
> But is capcha absolutely necessary?
> Generally I don't like it Lots of times the sound capcha's have  
> really garbled sound.
> I'll maybe check and send a test message to see how I like this  
> capcha.
> Mike
>
>
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