[nabs-l] A Battle Waiting to be Lost

Mon Feb 2 06:16:59 UTC 2009

    Hello Antonio and listers,

Try using an audio CAPTCHA if you have a severe hearing impairment or are 
deaf-blind. There's also a credibility issue and potential consequences that 
could work against us should we need to resort to litigation to gain 
complete access to these communities.

    What individuals do about social networks is their business. The problem 
comes when an organization that champions and actively promotes Web and 
application accessibility knowingly establishes a presence on social 
networks it knows have accessibility issues for the blind. These sites can't 
be ignored. That's all the more the reason to not establish presences in 
these social communities in the organization's name to protect our chances 
of winning should we decide to sue these guys if they continue to fail to 
address accessibility issues. Let Myspace, Facebook and company wave this 
fact in our faces in the state or federal courts. After all we have 
presences on their sites so why should they care about accessibility. We can 
always get sighted help to deal with CAPTCHAS and such so why waste their 
time with this talk about inaccessibility.

If you ask me if we continue down this path and continue to create NFB 
presences on social communities we know have accessibility issues for the 
blind we've opened up a nasty can of worms for ourselves. It's a court 
battle just waiting to be lost.

Peter Donahue

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Antonio M. Guimaraes" <iamantonio at cox.net>
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 01, 2009 10:01 PM
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Follow NFB on Twitter

Hello Peter,

As David Andrews points out, Twitter apparently has an audio auternative for
signing up to the service. I am a member of the site, and know lots of other
blind people who post there, and the captcha has not stopped these many
blind people from signing up.

There is no excuse for sites not to have a visual means of securing the
site, and keeping bots out of the picture. I don't much understand your
staunch opposition even to something like that, you say because it leaves
out the deaf-blind.

I submit that if all a sight requires is a captcha for signing up, and one
really wants to get signed up, one would arrange time with a sighted person
to process their enrollment in the service.

While we don't want to be left out of the loop, and counted out of
participation in onnline networking or what have you, I find it somewhat
anoying that such continued opposition should go on without regard for a
site's responsibility to keep out spammers. It should be considered that
meaningful efforts to resolve the issue, such as audio captchas have been
made.

Again, I am willing to bet that hundreds of blind people are on Twitter, and
even more on FaceBook, despite your hatred for their antispam methods.

Antonio Guimaraes
Shop online and support the NFB of RI at no additional cost to you.
http://www.givebackamerica.com/charity.php?b=169

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Andrews" <dandrews at visi.com>
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>; "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Cc: "NFB of California List" <nfbc-info at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2009 12:11 AM
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Follow NFB on Twitter

Peter:

It seems to me that it is not CAPTCHA's per se
that we are opposed to, but visual requirements
without reasonable alternatives.  Twitter does have an audio CAPTCHA.

These sites have reasonable security concerns and
it is their right and responsibility to take
steps to make them secure.  As long as they
provide us with reasonable alternatives we should
not oppose their visual approaches.

Dave

At 01:59 PM 1/30/2009, Peter Donahue wrote:
>Good afternoon everyone,
>
>     I'm sorry folks but if this organization opposes the use of CAPTCHA as
> a
>means of site security it has no business putting its presences on these
>sites that require blind people to use them; particularly if the audio
>quality is horrible and the person is both blind  and deaf. I'm all for
>establishing presences on social networks but not on those that require the
>use of a CAPTCHA as a part of registration process. As far as I'm concerned
>we're shooting ourselves in the foot if this continues!!
>
>Peter Donahue
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Danielsen, Chris (by way of David Andrews<dandrews at visi.com>)"
><CDanielsen at nfb.org>
>To: <david.andrews at nfbnet.org>
>Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2009 9:58 PM
>Subject: [nabs-l] Follow NFB on Twitter
>
>
>
>Dear Fellow Federationists:
>
>
>I am writing with exciting news! You can now
>follow the latest news and information from the
>National Federation of the Blind, the Voice of
>the Nation's Blind, on Twitter.  To follow our
>Twitter updates, go to
><http://www.twitter.com/NFB_voice>www.twitter.com/NFB_voice.
>You'll need to join Twitter if you don't have an account.
>
>
>
>Twitter is a social networking site that allows
>you to keep track of your friends, family, and
>interests online.  In addition to signing up for
>Web updates for the National Federation of the
>Blind, you can also opt to receive our Twitter
>updates via text message on your mobile
>phone.  And while you're at it, follow the 2009
>Braille Readers are Leaders campaign as well, by
>going to
><http://www.twitter.com/brailleliteracy>www.twitter.com/brailleliteracy
>
>
>
>We hope lots of you will follow our new Twitter
>feedand don't hesitate to send us a direct
>message if you have questions or comments about what you read.
>
>
>
>Sincerely:
>
>
>
>Chris Danielsen
>
>Director of Public Relations
>
>NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
>
>
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>
>No virus found in this incoming message.
>Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com
>Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.10.16/1926 - Release Date: 1/30/2009
>5:31 PM

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