Breaking CAPTCHAs
One of the myths surrounding CAPTCHAs is that they offer 100% protection against the abuse of web site facilities by automated systems.
That’s a reassuring idea but is it really true in practice?
NoSquint
Following on from discussions about text-sizing widgits on sites, I just been told about a new Firefox extension that might help the less confident users who are wary of using Firefox’s “View > Text size” option.
NoSquint is a Firefox extension that allows you to adjust the default text zoom level, which is very useful if you have a small display or run at a very high resolution. NoSquint also remembers the zoom level per site (though you can disable that).
NoSquint is compatible with Firefox 2.0 and above.
Support And Educate
Grant Broome has recently expressed some reservations over the suggestion that site developers abandon text-sizing widgits in favour of educating users instead. He’s worried that this approach is overly biased
Personally, I don’t see this discussion as particularly biased. More of a natural maturing within the web accessibility development sector. For years, we’ve been aware that effective accessibility involves three groups - site developers, user agent producers and the users.
Whilst we’ve happily moaned and complained about the middle group, there’s been a real reluctance to look at the user’s responsibility within the mix. As a result, the developers have often tried to “do everything” for the user. Laudable but not such a good idea longer term. However, I’d agree that just taking our ball back and announcing that we’re not playing any more isn’t going to help either.
CAPTCHAs Shut Out Blind Users
If anyone still has doubts about the problems that visual CAPTCHAs can create, I suggest that they check out a video produced by the American Federation for the Blind (AFB).
Entitled “CAPTCHAs on Social Networking Sites Shut Out Blind Users“, the video presents a very compelling case against purely visual challenges. However, as the video has been published via YouTube, you will need access to the Flash Player plugin in order to watch it.