Accessibility?

[iamback]

I just signed up for an account - and found to my horror that a CAPTCHA control was there which required me to enter the obfuscated text ... without any alternative provided.

How is someone with a visual impairment ever going to sign up here? (There are blind webdesigners, you know...)

I understand the reasons for the CAPTCHA (although there are i.m.o. better alternatives) but at the very least an equivalent alternative should be offered, at least a contact email address so an administrator can set up an account for those who cannot overcome the CAPTCHA hurdle. The email address can be obfuscated, of course, so spambots don't get hold of it.

A quick glance over the code doesn't show up any biggies - but I'll report whatever I stumble over later.

[iamback]

I noticed a few (minor) problems on the site homepage as well - both easy to fix:

1. There is some overlapping text, making it hard to read (see attachment)

2. The stylesheet does not define color or background color for many elements - including html and body - but does define color for some elements. If someone has defined their own (desktop) colors, for instance because of vision problems, the result may be that those elements that do have a color defined won't be legible because their color happens to have the same (or nearly the same) color as the visitor's own background color.

You can see this effect in my screenshot: I have my window background defined as "off white" (to reduce glare); the logo stands out because it has a white background. If my window background had be grey, some of the text on the page would not be visible at all.

Solution: define both color and background color for all elements (or none at all).

Note: my browser is Mozilla on Win2000

[annc]

Originally Posted by iamback

I just signed up for an account - and found to my horror that a CAPTCHA control was there which required me to enter the obfuscated text ... without any alternative provided.

We have a horror of those image verifications as well, and are scratching our heads as to how the option got turned on.

All gone now, and thanks for letting us know.

[iamback]

Originally Posted by annc

All gone now

That's great - thanks Ann!

[dacoyle]

Originally Posted by iamback

How is someone with a visual impairment ever going to sign up here? (There are blind webdesigners, you know...)

Marjolein,

Glad to see another vision-impaired-aware developer here. I didn't even notice the problem with the registration. Good catch.

(Note to other INETPUB refugees, yes, I know you've heard me talk to no end about text readers, but it can never hurt to mention it again because it's an area too over overlooked... )

[annc]

Originally Posted by dacoyle

I didn't even notice the problem with the registration.

You wouldn't have noticed it, because it was a very recent phenomenon - a week or two old at the most, I hope - and was removed as soon as we became aware of it.

Originally Posted by dacoyle

Marjolein, I didn't even notice the problem with the registration.

May I ask if the problem is solved and how?

[ktinkel]

Originally Posted by Webnauts

May I ask if the problem is solved and how?

Sure. We turned off the CAPTCHA thingie.

Originally Posted by ktinkel

Sure. We turned off the CAPTCHA thingie.

That is a pitty. Do you know this elegant accessible option?
http://www.standards-schmandards.com.../audiotest.php

More details about it, you can read here: http://www.standards-schmandards.com.../01/11-captcha

[iamback]

Originally Posted by Webnauts

That is a pitty. Do you know this elegant accessible option?
http://www.standards-schmandards.com.../audiotest.php

More details about it, you can read here: http://www.standards-schmandards.com.../01/11-captcha

While I did suggest there should be at least an alternative - I disagree that the audio test is "elegant". I've come across that before and while CAPTCHA may be hard to read, the audio may equally be (very!) hard to understand (I had trouble with it and my hearing really isn't bad at all). You can use it only if you actually do not have an hearing impairment - and then not easily! There are people who can use only braille to access websites and not audio output at all and they would still be excluded were this the only alternative.

What I suggested was "at least a contact email address so an administrator can set up an account for those who cannot overcome the CAPTCHA hurdle"; such an approach has none of the disadvantages an audio alternative has.