Advocates Fight CAPTCHA

Australian consumer and disability organizations have begun a campaign to reduce the use of CAPTCHA, the visual tests used by websites to distinguish human users from automated computer bots. CAPTCHA tests are generally not user friendly and they are often completely inaccessible to people who are blind or have low vision. While audio CAPTCHAs are available, many users find them even more difficult to understand. The official web standards body, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), has said CAPTCHA excludes people with disabilities. It proposes several alternative methods of proving web users are human. The “kill CAPTCHA” petition can be viewed at Change.org.

Universal Design (UD) is an approach to design that increases the potential for developing a better quality of life for a wide range of individuals. It is a design process that enables and empowers a diverse population by improving human performance, health and wellness, and social participation (Steinfeld and Maisel, 2012). It creates products, systems, and environments to be as usable as possible by as many people as possible regardless of age, ability or situation.