AlanBarber.Org
Wednesday, July 02, 2003
spam-bot tests cuase problems
In an article News.Com reports that news spam prevention systems are cuasing problems for people with disablities."Many companies have recently begun requiring users to pass a verification test in order to access their services--typically by typing into a Web form a few characters that appear on the form in a guise that prevents a computer or software robot from recognizing and copying them. "
The problem lies in the fact that you must be able to see the characters in order to type them into the verification system. Something people with vision problems can't do! This really hit home for me becuase I have a realative that is blind. Even though he lost his vision at a young age he still persued a career in technology and works for a company that develops software and hardware for disabled people.
Many sites are moving to this system. From free email providers to message boards have used the technique to halt bots from doing mass registration for spamming or other nasty deeds.
The systems show pictures of word or random digits and ask the user to type in the associated word or digits into a form. The pictures are generated on the fly so that an automated program cannot figure out what the word or digits are from the webpage contents.
The method is very good becuase it stops people from making programs to sign up for hundreds of free email accounts to send spam. However it also hinders a large group of users from being able to use a service legally because they can't see.
Some are starting to provide alternate verification techniques such as sending an audio file that says the digits but as the article reports the quality is very poor and even people with good hearing can't understand what the audio says.
Hopefully, a better system will be developed that doesn't use senses to verify that you are human.
on 07/02/2003 at 01:58 PM
I never really thought about things like that. Maybe I should start checking to see if my website is useable by blind people.