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If you already know what CAPTCHA is, skip the next paragraph. For those of you who need a reminder, here's how Wikipedia describes it.
A CAPTCHA is a type of challenge-response test used in computing to determine whether the user is human. "CAPTCHA" is a contrived acronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart", trademarked by Carnegie Mellon University. A CAPTCHA involves one computer (a server) which asks a user to complete a test. While the computer is able to generate and grade the test, it is not able to solve the test on its own. Because computers are unable to solve the CAPTCHA, any user entering a correct solution is presumed to be human.
These tests, which are supposed to be passable by humans but not machines, are used to prevent spam or ensure that a real person is logging in to a site. The problem is that they don't work for all humans. Specifically, they exclude humans with vision handicaps, and possibly humans with hearing problems as well.
A couple of BlogHers who are working with NaBloPoMo have come up against CAPTCHA issues this month. NaBloPoMo is National Blog Posting Month and November is the month in question.
Skye, at All Access Blogging, called the issue to my attention with her post "NaBloPoMo and CAPTCHA."
As I mentioned in my last post, November is National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). I am participating on my personal blog. I noticed during signup on the NaBloPoMo website that a visual CAPTCHA is required, with no instructions for people who cannot see or read the CAPTCHA.
Did I mention it in my post here? No. Bad blogger, no biscuit. I did mention it on my personal blog, and in a comment I left on the NaBloPoMo site, but I didn't highlight it here and I didn't contact the company that hosts the NaBloPoMo site to ask that they stop discriminating against people with visual and learning disabilities.
That, my friends, is a great example of privilege. Because the CAPTCHA didn't keep me from participating, even though I am interested enough in accessibility to start a blog about it, I didn't take action. I didn't have to.
Skye pointed the way to Ginny, who explained her problems with NaBloPoMo in her blog Ginny's Thoughts and Things.
Assalamu alaikum, I went to the site to sign up, that was linked to by Umm Zaid, and lo and behold! There was the dreaded captcha, *without* an audio or other accessible alternative!
Now sure I could get my husband or some other sighted person to help me sign up, but I’ve decided not to do that! There isn’t always someone around to help me, and as one other blind blogger put it, putting up a captcha that screen readers can’t read is effectively saying “no blind people allowed” and as a blind person, making me feel as though I’m not welcome.
Ginny did take some action before she decided against participating in NoBloPoMo. She contacted BlogHer Eden Kennedy from Fussy who is also the brains behind NaBloPoMo. Ginny also contacted Ning.com, which is the social network tool that Eden used to set up NaBloPoMo.
Ning pointed to some empty promises about adding the needed audio component to the CAPTCHA implementation on the site. It hasn't happened.
What about you? You're a blogger: what can you do? If you decide you must use CAPTCHA on your blog there is help out there. Before you decide that you must use it, however, look around for less exclusionary options, such as Akismet on Wordpress, or blog plug ins that eliminate much of the spam that comes your way.
The offical captcha.net site has a script called reCAPTCHA that provides the needed audio. They say,
In general, making your own CAPTCHA script (e.g., using PHP, Perl or .Net) is a bad idea, as there are many failure modes. We recommend that you use a well-tested implementation such as reCAPTCHA.
The site at captcha.net also provides some pros and cons, alternatives, and other suggestions about CAPTCHA that will help you.
Another potential source of help and information is Proposal for an Accessible Captcha--Standards Schmandards which suggests options beyond merely adding audio and provides a link to a Captcha Generator Application.
