CAPTCHA - Is it good or evil?
- 13th Jul 2005
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We are all aware of CAPTCHA – Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart, but in this day and age when disabilities are a key issue for society should sites be still allowed to use them?
The main reason for a CAPTCHA is to prevent bots from registering on sites to enable email address registration for spam emails, to solicit email spam or online spam of sites such as online polls. But the use of a password system that is displayed as a distorted image or letters that are obscured using random methods such as overlaying, has to prevent certain web users from being able to access websites fully.
A CAPTCHA will prevent a visually impaired user from accessing a protective source. They are not a computer, but a human with special requirements. A visually impaired person would not be able to use their screen reader to register with a site that uses a CAPTCHA….
There has been slow development on audio CAPTCHA’s but this would not be effective and has not been developed fully. But then the audio CAPTCHA will affect another group of disabilities…
Sites using CAPTCHA’s will be the target of litigation for discrimination against people with disabilities.
The W3C WAI, Web Accessibility Initiative, clearly states that the web must be accessible for everyone regardless of disability. All people must be able to perceive, understand, navigate and interact with the site. It is estimated that around 10% of the population in each country is classified as disabled which puts them in a big market share, not to be missed out on. With the Disability Discrimination Act become a greater force in making sure that all buildings are accessible to the disabled it is only a matter of time before CAPTCHA will be under greater scrutiny and classed as discriminatory.
8 Comments | Leave a comment »
You got a really good point, Dave! I used to do a lot of government websites here in Denmark some years ago and already then they had pretty strict requirements. And you are right, CAPTCHAs would never have passed those requirements - and still wont.
You couldn’t be more right Dave! I can’t see or hear, and whenever I encounter a CAPTCHA I have to move on to another site.
1% of the sites we spam use captcha so I do not see it is a major issue at the moment :)
CAPTCHA - for all practical purposes is a nice concept (because I understand what they are trying to achieve) to prevent spamming but is a lawsuit looking for a good New York Blood Sucking lawyer!
This struck a chord with me because over the last few days I have had a few related problems; I got an iPod and you need to read the serial number off the back to register your ownership on the Apple website, and the engraving is so small that it is massively difficult to read, even if (like me) you are lucky enough to have good eyesight. Then I got a new Dell with MS Office, and it took several attempts to type in the serial number off the CD packaging without errors, especially tripping up over the confusion between B’s and 8’s.
Like CAPTCHA’s, these can represent barriers to disabled people, but a reasonable compensating adjustment would be have a free, 24 hour staffed help desk where people who are confronted by an obstacle like this can get it removed.
The thing is, maybe Microsoft staff their help desk 24 hours a day, but the chances of a forum providing a service like this, just so people don’t trip up over their CAPTCHA’s is pretty remote.
I actually agree with you Dave. :()
Matt, you know the iPod serial is also on one of the menu options? Slightly easier to read.
thanks for the comments. I am currently investigating this for one of my clients in the UK - they are keen to protect their site but very concious of looking after visually impaired users. I have suggested live operators and sound files, but there are holes in these options too - and both still discrimate in some way. It seems clear that legislation is going to follow on this soon, someone come up with a solution please!?
Likewise, those with reading difficulties (dyslexia, alexia, visual agnosia etc.) can happily use read (and sometimes write) on this web thanks for text to speech support in browsers, and blind screen readers….
Captchas, not so easy. Content can be hidden behind captchas (registration forms mostly), blocking their access.