[Cabs-talk] Capcha

Terra Peterson poolprincess at att.net
Thu Nov 12 00:11:00 UTC 2009


It's too bad that the form isn't going to be used on the site. It seems like 
a good way for people to get in touch with CABS and the captcha isn't a bad 
thing either. Sad to see the work that was put into it go to waste. Thanks 
for the info about the captcha program.


God Bless
Terra Peterson

www.lifesrace.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Justin Harford" <jharford at calmail.berkeley.edu>
To: "California Association of Blind Students Mailing List" 
<cabs-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 6:03 PM
Subject: Re: [Cabs-talk] Capcha


> Yes thank you for your observation Terra.  In deed the idea behind the 
> captcha is that the computer does not know all the words spoken, only 
> those readily understood.  Often there are words in between that are  not 
> as clear, but if you get the words around them right, the computer 
> assumes that you got the unclear stuff correctly as well.  It then 
> compares responses on the unclear words and based on the most common 
> answers, fills in the blanks in the text.  This is all part of their 
> initiative to convert into text a collection of older books and media.
>
> I actually give a link to this near the bottom of the form.
>
> Regards
> Justin Harford
> CABS Secretary
>
>
> On Nov 11, 2009, at 3:49 PM, Terra Peterson wrote:
>
>> Hi Justin,
>> I think you are doing a good job on the CABS website. I was  concerned 
>> with the movie captcha only because I never understood if  you had to put 
>> all the words in or just some of the words. Now that  I know you don't 
>> have to actually get all of them right I think it's  a good thing. I 
>> agree with you that you shouldn't leave the site  open for spammers. They 
>> can and will take advantage of the site that  way. It would be a good 
>> idea to have some sort of option for deaf- blind people, although I don't 
>> know what that would be. Keep up the  good work!
>>
>>
>>
>> God Bless
>>       Terra Peterson
>>
>> www.lifesrace.com
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Justin Harford" 
>> <jharford at calmail.berkeley.edu
>> >
>> To: "California Association of Blind Students Mailing List" 
>> <cabs-talk at nfbnet.org
>> >
>> Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 3:04 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Cabs-talk] Capcha
>>
>>
>>> 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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