A post for the blind

A quick observation,
I was registering my information on a website last week, when I was asked to enter the information shown on a 'CAPTCHA'. Now to ensure all readers are following me so far, a 'CAPTCHA' is that little window showing a sequence of distorted random letters and numbers. This ensures the person entering this information is a human, due to the fact that a computer is not able to recognize these scrambled characters.

*A side note - 'CAPTCHAS' are used by libraries and companies such as google, to scan all new and old books; That also includes old scriptures and journals into a digital form. When the computer doesn't not recognize the characters, it is turned into a 'CAPTCHA' and it's only a matter of seconds before someone on the internet unwillingly extends a helping hand and aids the computer by filling in the scrambled characters. Giving it a second thought, in a way, we're just helping the beast, in a philosophical sense. If by 'beast' I mean, the amount of spam generators on the internet just waiting to create an account with your name and emailing your friends and family with xxxplicit content and junk mail.*

I digress....back to my captcha. Staring at the captcha for a second to decipher its content, because I don't want to make the mistake of confusing a scrambled '4' with an 'A'. I get nervous thinking the website will think I'm an idiot and just block me from registering. "You have failed to enter simple characters as they are written in front of you. This website does not accept registration from morons. May we suggest Ottawa U. -- From the people at Carleton"
As I took a closer look at the characters, I noticed a tiny symbol on the side showing a picture of a speaker. Please note I said "tiny" symbol. As curious as you are as me, I had to find out what that button was for. And the obvious behold, it was an audio clip of the characters shown on the captcha. I thought that was pretty cool. What better way to enter a captcha then by having Steven Hacking’s talking computer read it out to me?!

Ok so here is what a Captcha sounds like:

WHAT WAS THAT?!?!? I couldn't even fathom any logic reasoning to why this option is available. It sounds like a bunch of random audio clips overlapped. These could be movies, songs, even phone conversations. What if it was a bit of a conversation from a sex hotline? How awkward would that be? Would the captcha come with a warning "The previous Captcha contained adult language and nudity and should not have been heard by a young audience."

Ok so what is the point of this audio Captcha? Lets go down the list....


First off, illiterate people. Surely they can't read-- there's no way they would get passed the captcha. If that's so, what are they doing filling a registration form in the first place? Hell, lets assume they complete the form, and are at the step of entering the Captcha. And they click on the audio link, then hear this disturbing sound, then must type the matching characters from their keyboard. Get it?!...typing the characters on the keyboard is the act of reading! Ok so illiterate people are useless for the purpose of this argument.

Oh, how about....Old people..They have a hard time seeing small font, let alone scrambled small font characters. Then again, old people also have a hard time hearing. Picturing a 75 year-old Nana trying to listen to this captcha and gets a heart attack thinking it's the noise of the devil or at least that girl from the exorcist. And all she wanted was to register to get updates on her local sewing club. What a tragedy.

And finally, we come to the blind; Perhaps the administrators of this website are making their website handicap accessible so that more users may benefit from their service. There are computers for the blind, but I doubt a blind person would successfully find that 'icon' anywhere, especially if there's no button that would change that icon picture into sound. Then you would need another button for the audio version of the first button. Not a very user-friendly way of building a website.

It would be the same if I were to open a singing school, and offered a coupon to all mute people. It's insulting. And this captcha should be insulting to the blind community. People with disabilities know they won’t be able to perform normal activities and tasks we do everyday. But that doesn't mean we should pretend we're being sympathetic and offer an alternative which is impossible to reach due to the nature of the process of registering online.

In a sense, this post is for the blind community. I ask of them to stand against such insults disguised as acts of charity and kindness. If you acknowledge this message, go forth and protest in your own way. We shall go forth and rebel: Branding the city with our own braille graffiti. Or perhaps break all the lenses on all movie theater projectors. The public will surely go crazy trying to watch movies with only sound......

-- We will call ourselves the "Blind Bandits"

Blind Bandit Chief signing out.