The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

Some websites have an additional button for exactly this problem where it will play an mp3 of characters to write down. If the sites you are interested in do not have this feature go to the “contact us” section and find a telephone number to call them directly. While you have them on the line you can educate them about ways they can be more helpful to the disabled community of business people. Happy learning.

Hi, Joan — Regarding computer accessibility issues for the visually impaired, I am including a link to a report describing the work of Prof. Jonathan Lazar of Towson University, his Towson University student Jonathan Holman and their two collaborators from the University of Notre Dame.
ABSTRACT
“CAPTCHAs are widely used by websites for security and privacy purposes. However, traditional text-based CAPTCHAs are not suitable for individuals with visual impairments. We proposed and developed a new form of CAPTCHA that combines both visual and audio information to allow easy access by users with
visual impairments. A preliminary evaluation suggests strong potential for the new form of CAPTCHA for both blind and visual users.”
http://www.towson.edu/main/research/researchhighlights/documents/Holman_assets_CAPTCHA.pdf

If you would like more information, please contact me (410-704-4672 or cdunsworth@towson.edu) and I will arrange for you to speak with Prof. Lazar.

A family member of mine had JAWS training from the Helen Keller Institute for computer to help with career. Ask them what programs or classes are available to you because they even provide no-cost support & access to tools. A local Lions Club can also help with funds if you need more info or funds, its our mission.

Additionally, many newer registration pages have an audio “read me” link that I’ve noticed, good luck.

Web designers are looking at audio CAPTCHAS but they’re apparently not on all sites. Some sites such as Facebook give you a means to verify your account, so apparently once doing so, you need’nt run into CAPTCHAS again. The people who brought you CAPTCHAS recommend reCAPTCHA for those with visual disabilities. http://recaptcha.net/whyrecaptcha.html

Marcus: I, too, am blind. I’ve used Internet courses offered by YahooGroups and some on Google. I use the JAWS screen reader. If the site has a moderator, contact them via Email — they can register you. Sometimes they have an alternative audio sign-in. But, these have a lot of static and you may have to braille the numbers as they come in as they run to 7 or 8 characters. Your best bet, if no moderator is noted, would be to contact the organization putting on or sponsoring the course and tell them you need assistance to register for the course. All of the courses I’ve taken have been willing to aid me in signing up for their course. If the only Email address is that of the Webmaster, contact him/her and ask for the Email address of the sponsoring organization. Most, if not all, will be able to help you. I know you can’t always get sighted help, and hopefully, someday the Internet will be the equalizer it was meant to be.

Hi Joan!
Please let Marcus know that there is often a text link alongside of those anti-bot images that will let you listen as a voice reads the words or characters in the box. Perhaps if he moves his mouse around the perimeter of the box, his screen reader will notice the link.

Best of luck to you, Marcus!

Hi Marcus & Joan,
I consulted with our Dir. of Adaptive Technology at The Carroll Center for the Blind, Newton, MA and his response is sililar to others I see. Some web sites use an alternative audio CAPTCHAS that asks you to listen to some numbers and letters and type them in rather than looking at the image and typing it in. Both the image and the audio are very distorted so as to keep automated systems from getting past this test for determining if the entity trying to enter into the system is human or machine. There is not independent way to get around this with speech. You will have to have help at the time it is required. Usually this is only when you register for the course.
If you would like to contact him for further reference, brian.charlson@carroll.org.
Good Luck,
Arthur O’Neill
Vice President
Carroll Center for the Blind

You may also want to contact Hadley School for the Blind on Elm Street in Winnetka, Illinois 60093.

Hello Marcus and Joan,

There has actually been quite a bit of controversy going on for some years regarding this issue. Unfortunately, right now, there is only one alternative if the site you are attempting to access uses only the standard graphic-based CAPTCHA, and Barbara explained it in her comment–e-mailing or telephoning the moderator or webmaster for assistance with registering. Yes, there are sites using audio captcha, but if the one you are attempting to access does not, this is no help.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)has written extensively about the accessibility issues surrounding CAPTCHA on their site. One link is: http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/NOTE-turingtest-20051123/

When discusing CAPTCHA, The W3C has stated in the above-mentioned article, “many of the systems can be defeated by computers with between 88% and 100% accuracy, using optical character recognition”. There is also mention of a CAPTCHA defeat on PHP- and ASP-based systems. This involves cacheing known-valid session IDs and then reusing them.

A little further research on my part discovered that even on the sites using audo CAPTCHA methods, they do not always effectively solve this issue, dependent on software used.

I wish you the best of luck with continuing your education, Marcus.

Kind regards,

April Rendonvera, Virtual Assistant