December 29, 2007

Dear Patchou and all other MsgPlusLive Developers,

I am writing to tell you about a critical concern facing blind and visually impaired people who install Messenger Plus Live and to ask for your help to resolve the issue in an equitable manner.

As blind computer users, we rely on a piece of assistive technology known as a screen reader. An example of this software is Window-Eyes, developed and sold by GW Micro (http://www.gwmicro.com). Most blind people install Messenger Plus Live in unsponsored mode; they have learned from the community that the ads in sponsored mode can interfere with the proper operation of this vital tool. Unfortunately, some blind users have installed the sponsored version of your software, finding that the functionality of their screen reader has been impaired, impacting the ability to use their computers in the process.

As the sponsored mode version of MSG Plus Live is currently written, a visual CAPTCHA is presented during the uninstallation process. Blind people are physically unable to see the picture of characters in a CAPTCHA, thus they are unable to solve such a challenge / response scheme. The result is that those of us who have installed the sponsored version of your software are completely unable to remove it from our computers.

Please consider resolving this critical issue as soon as possible by removing the visual CAPTCHA altogether, by implementing an audio playback CAPTCHA such as the one found at http://recaptcha.net or by using an alternative e-mail confirmation or text based challenge / response system.

Your consideration and time is appreciated, and I anticipate hearing from someone on the Messenger Plus Live development team as soon as possible.

Best regards for a happy New Year,

Darrell Shandrow
Accessibility Evangelist

Well, you must remember that if screen readers are able to read it, other programs must be able to read it too -- therefore, defeating the entire purpose of the CAPTCHA. Do screen readers not suffer from this problem with every CAPTCHA?

I think it should be removed altogether, to be honest.

quote:

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Originally posted by ShawnZ
I think it should be removed altogether, to be honest.

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There are a number of accessible ways to protect resources against spam and other abuse that are not visual only and, thus, do not lock us out simply due to our physical lack of eye sight. In all cases, CAPTCHA schemes should be made accessible. It is simply the right thing to do. Web sites should be protected, but not at the cost of equal and full participation by everyone, including the blind.

It's a shame accessibility is so hard and/or time consuming to cater for and consider in software and websites. I hope something changes to help you guys and gals, and that you can still enjoy the features of Plus! without being able to see the sexy User interface

One thing I keep seeing, which I just can't understand. That's the concept that reasonably accomodating us is necessarily expensive or "time consuming" along with the concept that a little expense or time shouldn't be spent to ensure participation for all. On what basis, aNILEator, do you base the statement that accessibility is "time consuming"?

I have never installed the sponsor, why would there even need to be a CAPTCHA.

To stop bots from uninstalling it.

I base it on my own research and study as well as implementation and project work. Adding accessibility compatibility options for all sorts of impaired users takes a long time and in some cases is impossible, same as you will never cater to all peoples tastes. Building websites for example take a long time and lots of careful planning, let's say I've compiled a great looking and functioning website, it's ready to go. If I were to check and add compatibility accessibility options for impaired users it'd take me more time. I'd have to check it enlarges properly in various web-browsers page, text and image enlarging systems, I'd have to hack together some code for audio Captcha or something which is beyond me, it's just all that extra time and resources to offer support to a very limited audience. Thus unfortunately for businesses, accessibility can get pushed aside, forgotten or dismissed because of the extra costs unless it is enforced, but that is more for real life stuff like whelchair access etc.

Anyway. Let's hope Patchou gets notice of this thread and has a read

Well, although an audio function wouldn't be a bad thing, I think it might take a bit too much time to code it. Plus, where would the audio files come from anyway? Kinda makes me wonder..

Anyway, I'm sure there are people who may help those who are visually impaired. Even I could help with remote access to a computer, but it all depends on trust. (I help quite a few people with RealVNC, nifty application and a bit better than Remote Desktop in 'some' ways)

As for myself, I don't install the sponsor program even though I do support Patchou in Plus!, I just don't install it since I don't want to be bugged by my security applications just to allow the thing and I hate pop-ups. (that is, if there are any.. I haven't had that thing installed in forever x_x)

It is rather unfortunate that a number of inaccurate statements have been made on this thread concerning the supposed extreme cost and time involved in making web sites accessible, without any serious research to back them up. While the time required to code audio CAPTCHAs has been brought up several times as a reason to exclude us from participation, there are, in fact, a number of totally free options for providing an audio CAPTCHA! These are already written!  One example is ReCAPTCHA.net, which I mentioned in my original letter. Another is something called FormShield for .Net platforms. There are a few others. Please, either use the ones already created, or code your own if you don't like them, but, at this stage of the game, there's absolutely no excuse for there not being an audio playback for every CAPTCHA on the planet.

I think the CAPTCHA should be removed, or an audio version added. I'm sure Patchou can do something about this.

My thoughts:

Note that the captcha is not made by Patchou, it is part of the uninstaller made by Circle Development Ltd. So, Patchou can't do anything about this except for repeating the suggestion to his sponsor.


Second: making programs, websites or anything else for that matter, accessable for challenged people DOES cost more time and money and thus often put aside, liking it or not.

That is logic itself actually, already explained by aNILEator. When you make something and it needs to qualify, let's say, 5 rules it would take X amount of hours. When you make the same thing but it must qualify 10 rules, it usually means you need to take more time for it, not only to physically make it, but also to test it against to extra rules, etc...

More specific, making a captcha also with audio requires you to add something more to your product, no matter if there are already existing engines or not; you still need to add the engine and test it with your software. It does cost more time...


Third: the reason that the sponsor is optional and one should read the installer options and thick the option you want, shouldn't be an argument for not providing an accessable uninstaller.


Fourth: Audio captcha can be provided by storing the individual letters and numbers on the net. It shouldn't be stored in the uninstaller, that would be too much. If the online storage option isn't possible, another system should be used (or indeed removed all together).

I'll contact CircleDev and ask them about doing something about that. I'm all for accessibility and I always put a lot of time an effort in my programs to make sure everybody can use them up to some extent.

Thank you for your report, I'll try to push it for the next update of the sponsor program (which I'm not in charge of unfortunately, one thing I may do is add an accessibility-only clue in the setup saying that you will need to see the screen for uninstallation so that people who cant see it don't install the sponsor).