Re: reCAPTCHA implementation problems

Hey,

On Sat, 14 Jul 2007, Gez Lemon wrote:

> Hi Ben,
>
> On 14/07/07, Ben Maurer <bmaurer@andrew.cmu.edu> wrote:
>
> <quote>
> Doesn't the refresh button make sense *after* the challenge.
> </quote>
>
> It makes sense to put the refresh button after the challenge, but not
> after the edit box that prompts the user to answer the challenge. At
> the moment, you pose the challenge, request that the user answers the
> challenge, and then after they have responded to the challenge, inform
> the user that they could change the challenge if they found it
> difficult (plus other options) - unfortunately, users with visual and
> mobility impairments are very unlikely to discover those options, as
> they're not easily available to them.

Good point, thanks.

One issue here though, our controls are all within a table. Using div's 
for layout is pretty hard. We're trying to support browsers back to IE 
5.0.

Sadly, we're unable to use tabindex to help us our much. The issue is that 
we don't control the entire web page. Most developers don't use tabindex 
for their entire form, relying on document order. What we do is allow the 
developer to say "please use this tabindex for reCAPTCHA". If they don't 
do that, we use document order to lay things out. So we only have one 
tabindex item to work with.

> Ben Maurer wrote:
> <quote>
> It still degrades the experience for a visual user quite a bit though. Now
> they have to tab three times before they can get to the input textbox.
> What I'd really like is to have an out-of-band set of buttons that the
> user can easily move in to.
> </quote>
>
> Requiring keyboard users to cycle through three tabs is a small price
> to pay, in comparison to people who cannot readily change aspects
> about themselves, to compensate for people who will completely miss
> those options if they are not available with the keyboard alone.
> Putting tabbing through three elements above the needs of people with
> disabilities will always be at odds with accessibility.

If at all possible, I'd like to get both at the same time. Would non-mouse 
users have a browser that highlights accesskey shortcuts to them? We could 
put an accesskey on each of the buttons.

When deciding if they want to implement reCAPTCHA on their website, one 
thing webmasters will see is how easy it is for *them* to use reCAPTCHA. 
If we have to make it harder for the webmaster to use reCAPTCHA in order 
to accommodate some users, we'll lose some amount of useage. These folks 
will go on to use CAPTCHAs which, more likely than not, don't have an 
audio CAPTCHA or are inaccessible for other reasons.

I think we can make the biggest impact if we can make reCAPTCHA accessible 
without degrading the experience for other users.

-b

Received on Saturday, 14 July 2007 01:56:04 UTC