Seeing is believing

In the past I've ranted about "webmasters" and their total failure when it comes to designing websites that are accessible to everyone on the web, and Scott and myself have had many a conversation on the same subject, especially that favourite of "webmasters" called CAPTCHA's. Not only are they 100% pointless because they can be easily broken but they require that humans jump through hoops to prove that they are a human and are impossible for people with certain conditions to solve .... such as dyslexics :

Why pick Dyslexics?

I single out Dyslexics in particular because I happened to be chatting with Tilqi on IRC about accessibility and the mentality of most "webmasters", the edited version of the conversation went a little like this :

<tilqi> i insist on the impossibility of an absolute globalization / standarization or whatever you call it
<yabba_hh> whilst people think that, you remain correct
<tilqi> when so much obstacle about it
<yabba_hh> the obstacles are 100% man made
<tilqi> i agree the need of it, but like many other things it is both vital and impossible
<tilqi> and you are not very comprimising today (:
<yabba_hh> lol, I'm not compromising on any day when this is the subject, I believe in it passionately
<tilqi> yea but it's like 'world peace' , lol it even sounds funny anymore.. you know it must be established but you can not and never will
<yabba_hh> but you know that it is the right thing
<yabba_hh> accessibility is the same "right thing", and is far more achievable
<yabba_hh> it's only getting "more impossible" because current "webmasters" are making it that way
<tilqi> i mean may be you can do it confiscating all the computers and re distribute and 'locked' computers with firefox installed
<yabba_hh> lol, you need to change the mentality of the coders, not the capabilities of computers
<yabba_hh> I have zero problem with using flash / js ... but things *must* work without both
<tilqi> yea but they mostly *dont*
<tilqi> sector leader websites
<yabba_hh> then that's a failure of coding
<tilqi> all the portals in the world
<tilqi> and nba.com uefa.com etc etc
<tilqi> all use flash %90
<yabba_hh> the fact that they use all this stuff doesn't make it right, it's crap coding and excludes a large percentage of web users
<tilqi> there are countries below %90-99 literacy percantage still
<tilqi> and i am not talking about African countries
<yabba_hh> pretty sure that UK is below 90% literacy
<yabba_hh> and that's without taking into account blind people and dyslexics

There must be Dyslexic sites surely?

That sparked off a google search, where I found this site beingdyslexic.co.uk, not that it was that hard to find, it was the top result in a google search for "dyslexic forum". They have a really cool quote on their home page :

Whoever administers this forum should be shot for stupidity

beingdyslexic.co.uk wrote :

At Being Dyslexic with have a strong sense of community built upon the ethos that dyslexia is a gift.

Becuase dyslexia has a right brain dominance, this allows you to see every day activities from a slightly different angle. Dyslexics tend to be more creative and inspirational than your average joe.

Our brains are amazing. Try to learn stratagies that help you overcome any day-to-day problems, this will then allow you to explore the world in our unique but amazing way.

Now these people sound like they really know what they're talking about huh? Sooooo you'd expect that their forums, out of all of the forums in the world would be as dyslexic friendly as possible right? Well they pretty much are, low on images, high on text content and lots of other dyslexic members that are eager to help and share, assuming they can register of course. If you click that link and then agree to their terms and conditions and proceed to the next page, guess what you get to see? That's right a bloody CAPTCHA. Misunderstanding your target audience when you run most sites is bad enough, but whoever made the decision to implement a captcha on a dyslexics site should be put against a wall and shot for total stupidity

If you use captchas on your own site, whether they're targeted at visually impaired people or not, then I'd advise you put them in the bin where they belong, not only are they a complete waste of time they lock a lot of the web away from people who do not have the ability to complete them ... ohhh, and before anybody mutters anything about audio captchas, don't, there should be no hoops for humans to jump through just to be able to use the web, period.

¥