Unpopular View

[kittytech]

All over my friends list and now on an email list, I've been hearing people talk about the new audio verification process that Craigs List has implemented. Out of curiosity, I wanted to check it out for myself and see what the big problem was. I've decided, (as unpopular as this is about to make me), that this is a bunch of hype over nothing. They appear to be using a version of the Recaptcha service. This is absolutely no different from the service that LJ uses, and it's coming up on more and more sites. Yes, there's background noise that makes it more difficult to decipher the numbers, but it's my understanding that visually these images aren't exactly friendly either. It seems to me as though people are overreacting to this situation. I want accessibility just as much as the next person, don't get me wrong, but it seems to me that those who are complaining are missing one very important thing. There could be NO audio alternative. And, let's not forget those who can't see the image or hear the audio. It's my opinion that a petition and complaints in this situation are pointless.

And now, let the rotten fruit and eggs fly at will. Just warn me first so that I can duck.

Comments

[masterofmusings.livejournal.com]

I'm in complete agreement with you, Sweetheart, But, then, I suspect you knew that. I love you.

[sophiahagia.livejournal.com]

Oh thank you. Thank you for saying this. I think it's way more important to be working on solutions for deafblind people than it is to complain about a perfectly acceptable solution that's already there. Lots of sites use that particular type of audio recording, LJ, Twitter and AOL included.

I don't really have much to say beyond that.

[kl1964.livejournal.com]

I'm glad somebody finally had the guts to post this point of view. I kind of liked the old Craigslist version of captcha, since it had a rather jazzy tune playing in the background. But I hardly think the change should have caused such uproar, a petition, etc.

[shazza59.livejournal.com]

I think we have to be careful of these petitions and such. It would be far too easy for everybody to think blind people are whiners and then we'll have problems when we really need accessibility issues looked at.

[jenandbronze.livejournal.com]

Personally, I dislike any type of captcha. The other day I had to create a GMail account for my Grandmother, as somehow my mother tried to do it herself, "I can't figure what I am doing wrong." I have some vision but I found one really difficult, started from scratch. "Jen, there is an audio link there!" "You know, I hate those, they are difficult to decipher!" Why? I am too hard of hearing to hear it!

[shazza59.livejournal.com]

You are right about a lot of the capcha being visually difficult. When I signed up for photobucket pro, which I wanted because I could upload photos via ftp which is faster and eliminates the ads, which in combination with the images on my PB page was bogging JFW down, "The Man" had to enter a capcha to approve the order, and there was no audio form, I checked. He had to strain to make it out and got one wrong. Before I got texting on my phone, I had to listen to garbled audio capcha with FaceBook when adding friends etc. I understand the need to keep the spammers and bots at bay, but LJ et al are doing the best they can. No eggs from this quarter.

"Reasonable" Accomodations

[nu7i.livejournal.com]

Believe it or not, I agree with you on this one! We must insist on "reasonable" accomodations. We're not necessarily entitled to receive "perfect" accessibility. All the same, all audio CAPTCHAs do in fact discriminate against and exclude the deaf-blind, and this matter ultimately needs to be addressed. The real, longer term answer isn't yet known, but it definitely is *NOT* audio CAPTCHA!

[pawpower4me.livejournal.com]

I totally agree. Until it is accessible for all; I won't participate.

It makes no difference to me one way or the other if hearing people have more or less trouble to hear this thing. These same hearing people make a huge outcry when they don't get equal access but then when it gets fixed and the audio improves they will stop caring about Deafblind people because we don't deserve as much thought and hard work put into making it accessible because it's accessible to the majority.
We can just get a friend or family member to help us, but if someone suggested the same thing to a blind hearing person there would be a long and loud cry about the unfairness of it all.

[chocolab.livejournal.com]

Shazza you can fix that facebook thing about always needing to enter text messages. If you email them, they'll fix it, they did it for Katie. Paw power, I wish there was an easier way, but these same people who hate craigslist, LJ, Twitter, captchas also think sites like amazon are inaccessible, because they demand it spoonfed. I'll fight thank yufor what I want, not cry because I don't have it. And for any deafblind people reading this, this is not saying you are crying,I mean the stupid people who want ites that are fine the way they are redone.

[toonhead.livejournal.com]

I think these petitions just make people feel better about themselves. Yes it could be argued that the one for Google may have had some hand in getting them to get their act together, but we don't know what they had planned behind the scenes. 200 angry blind folks making all kinds of noise won't change things overall. You would have to get hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of signatures to make any kind of noise at all, and even then it may not work.

Either way, Captcha is just something we're going to have to deal with. No other sollution appears to have come up yet.

[johnmill79.livejournal.com]

Actually, I saw a site that asked a silly question like what are those things on the end of your legs? I don't know how guessable it would be to spammers, but if they could make the questions something only people would know, that might well be a solution. I signed up for that one with a snap.

[arinoch.livejournal.com]

To the person who created the Craig's List petition. Suck it up, princess. You used the same damn thing when you created your LJ account, I'm betting. It didn't stop you then. Sad, but true.

[quirkofonic.livejournal.com]

I'm just skeptical about the effectiveness of any internet petition. I know there are sites where you can creat them and all, and it seems almost like those e-mail chain letters people pass along thinking they can cure some sick child by forwarding something so many zillions of times. I could be wrong here, but I call 'em as I see 'em.