[real-eyes] Fw: Accessibility for Everyone.... and everything.
- From: <bigdaddylou63@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bigdaddylou63@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2008 02:17:50 -0500
> Duskrider's Blog
> Thursday, December 20, 2007
>
> Accessibility for Everyone.... and everything.
>
> By Ed Zenisek
>
> Duskrider's Blog
> A look into the world of 3d Digital Art and Website Design
> 06:09:02 pm, by Ed Zenisek , 1086 words
> Categories: Web Design and Programming
>
> Wow, it's been a real long time since I've written anything here... I just
> haven't had the time or the desire to really do any blogging. I was
> reading a thread today, however, that got my kickers in a bunch, so I felt
> that perhaps it was a good day to come out of retirement. Typically I
> don't express much personal opinion on this blog, but since I haven't
> expressed much of anything on this blog in the last 6 months, I don't
> suppose anyone is going to care if I get a little opinionated here.
>
> What tripped me off today was the subject of Captcha. If you don't know
> what it is, it's when you need to enter some goofy looking letters or
> numbers to enter a website or register for something. Here's an Example
> from the Forest of Love. As you can see, I myself use Captchas on my own
> sites. The purpose of these is to ensure that the registering party is
> actually a human and not some program written by a script kiddie that
> wants to sell Viagra(tm) on my website. As of this writing I have a
> Captcha, 100% custom written by yours truly in Flash, that integrates with
> php in order to try to fool the bots. I love this little flash... I was
> very proud of it when I got it completed. It even has a place where you
> can use Audio to read the characters for you if you can't read them on the
> screen.
>
> As much as I love it, I'm thinking of replacing it. Why?
>
> Accessibility.
>
> The Flash Captcha on the page I just linked to has several Accessibility
> problems, and it's likely that anyone on the Website Accessibility A-Train
> would virtually flame it so badly that I might as well serve it with some
> Favre Beans and A Nice Chianti... *slurp slurp*
>
> For one, it's Flash based. Bad move. Flash has become a sort of 'Bad Boy'
> of web design in recent years because it can be loud, distracting, and a
> overall bad experience for the visitor, not to mention long load times. In
> addition, Flash isn't always installed by default on every browser, and
> even though it might be installed, it isn't necessarily enabled. Without
> Flash installed and enabled on my site, the Captcha fails and you cannot
> register.
>
> Secondly, even though I have a button that plays the audio, it's likely
> that a screen reader (a program for the blind that reads the contents of a
> web page) couldn't use it anyway... making the audio fairly useless. Since
> it's in flash, the screen reader wouldn't be able to read it and notify
> the visitor (who is probably blind) that they have an audio option.
>
> Third, it's a Captcha, and Captchas are ALWAYS bad for Accessibility. Ask
> anyone who is a 'Web Accessibility Expert' and they'll tell you that a
> Captcha does nothing but put barriers and speedbumps in the way of
> legitimate users who are trying to surf the web. It's annoying and an
> inconvenience and should be stricken from this Earth and avoided like the
> black plague!
>
> Web Accessibility Experts annoy me. A lot.
>
> They're usually the same type of people who like to tell me what my site
> can and cannot look like, how it can and cannot operate, and how I must
> follow strict guidelines when creating my website so that anyone can
> access it from any type of computer or any type of browser. Nevermind that
> the site is MINE and owned by ME and I should have total creative control
> over it. Nevermind that maybe I don't CARE if blind people can access my
> site. That's not the case, but so what if it is? It's MY site. That's what
> I think anyway. To the 'Expers', however, it doesn't matter. if I don't
> make my site accessible to even the smallest minority of web users not
> only am I an amateur web designer and programmer by default, but I'm also
> insensitive, and might even be a monster, chauvinist, bigot, or even a
> conservative. Well... now we don't want that, do we?
>
> It gets worse, because, since I'm an American, I could probably be sued
> because someone couldn't read my blog or view my images due to being
> blind. Yeah, that's right. The Target retail store chain just got sued for
> this very thing. A blind person wasn't able to shop on their online store
> because Target didn't make their website accessible to the blind. Now, I'm
> not saying the suit against Target is totally unjustified, but I've seen
> some go so far as to say that there should be laws passed saying how
> accessible websites need to be. Imagine what would happen to mySpace if
> laws like this passed?
>
> Anyway, I digress. I was reading about a new type of Captcha today that
> I'm thinking very seriously about implementing on my sites, replacing the
> Captcha I wrote myself. It's called ReCaptcha, and it's pretty cool. It
> uses words from books to make the Captcha, has an audio component made to
> work with screen readers, and it benefits the world at the same time. I
> think it's a cool idea, but a couple of the comments on the page regarding
> ReCaptcha smack of accessibility righteousness, which is what prompted me
> to post this entry.
>
> LINK:
> http://www.recaptcha.net
>
> Awesome idea! For wasting a sh*tload of everyone's time! Thanks for
> putting more roadblocks and speedbumps on the web!
>
> But captchas are, at best, annoying! It's a shame that people that want to
> post a comment must pass this painful step. And I don't speak about people
> with difficulties.
>
> The fact of the matter is that Captchas are the lesser of two evils.
> Either you endure filling out a Captcha script when you sign up for mail
> or any other service... or you spend your life digging through Viagra and
> Mobile Phone ads looking for content. Personally, if one of my visitors
> can't be bothered to fill out my Captcha before they use my free service,
> I don't miss them.
>
> As an additional note to Web Accessibility Experts who carry the torch of
> righteousness, I applaud your efforts and hope that someday everyone
> regardless of age or impairment can have access to everything, but don't
> tell me how to create my websites. The day I create a background image for
> the blind users of my website is the day that you can take me out back and
> put me out of my misery. Thank you.
>
>
> http://duskrider.com/digital-art-blog/index.php/2007/12/20/accessibility_for_everyone_and_everythin
>
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