Updated: Yahoo makes accessibility progress, but CAPTCHA remains inaccessible

While the opening of this post might sound negative, this is actually a post to acknowledge Yahoo for some advances in user accessibility which were recently added to their email operations.

Its been a while since I wrote about the inaccessible process which
Yahoo
Has in place for setting up new accounts. In the past, I’ve aired publicly my problem with
Yahoo’s inaccessible CAPTCHA verification process,
And later added to that, when I wrote about
Yahoo’s acknowledgement that it was inaccessible.

Those two previous posts were about only the problems blind people have using Yahoo’s set up procedures. Once the account was set up, the account was accessible enough to read one’s mail and delete unwanted mail. It was also fairly easy to press the “Create New Message” button, then write and send mail.

However, there were still some problems I didn’t write about in using some of the various buttons on the site, such as those to reply and forward selected messages. It was often a hit-and-miss process on whether these buttons would work when activated with the JAWS screen reader. Most often, though, it was miss as nothing would happen. I have to think that this was a problem with the web site, because executing button commands on other web sites has never been an issue for me.

Today, I’m back to give an update on some progress the Yahoo Mail site has made on usability by users with screen readers. Unfortunately, that is not relating to the CAPTCHA situation. That problem still exists.

I use a Yahoo Mail account for my contact information on this blog. It allows me to freely give out my email address online and not worry about my home email inbox getting inundated with spam. (Yahoo Mail does seem to have a pretty good, although sometimes inconsistent spam filter.) For the most part, I use the Yahoo account to receive news alerts to which I subscribe. But I also receive email via my blog contact information to which I’d like to reply. That is where the problems used to arise.

In the past, When I would hit the “Reply” button, it would do nothing. The next option I had was to forward the message to my home email, but when I hit the “Forward” button, it was equally impotent using a screen reader. The only option I had left was to copy the message sender’s email address and paste it into a message using my home mail client.

This entire process was both frustrating and cumbersome, and seems like such a ridiculous concept in this technologically advanced age. After all, isn’t the purpose of advancing technology to make life’s tasks simpler?

The good news is that Yahoo Mail has worked out the button bugs. It is a fairly simple task today to use all of the button commands on my account. This slight shift in accessibility was silent and implemented without any fanfare a few months ago. I would think that Yahoo would want to bang its drum when it enables accessibility, so it is beyond me why they didn’t make any announcement on this technological advancement. It had to be an intentional fix, because the Yahoo developers definitely changed something.

So, congratulations to Yahoo Mail for making their web site more accessible and usable to their visually impaired clients who rely on screen readers to access their accounts. And, another round of applause for addressing an issue which I’ve not noticed much negative press about on the web.

This is a good start. Now, if Yahoo could just show such effort in incorporating an accessible CAPTCHA solution. (Hint to Yahoo developers: accessible solutions already exist. Email me at my
Yahoo account
And I’ll be happy to reply to you with more information!)

Update 08/11/08
I am appreciative of the submission of an anonymous commenter for his/her shared observations on Yahoo! mail. I believe these thoughts echo the complimentary nature of this post and feel compelled to share these insights. Screen reader users pay attention to the first point about these changes only relating to the "Classic" version of Yahoo! mail.

One thing I would point out to the readers is that many of the changes that you talk about are in the "Classic" version of Yahoo! mail and not the "New" version.

My personal favorites are alt plus 3, alt plus 6, and alt plus 7 for compose mail, reply, and reply to all respectively. The addition of headings at important parts of the page makes navigation a breeze. JAWS users will appreciate the ability to use table reading keys to move up and down within folders of messages.

I have been a Yahoo! mail user for almost ten years both before and after I started using a screen reader. It is a great service made even better by the addition of these keystrokes.

The lack of an alternative to a visual CAPTCHA is another story and one that I just cannot grasp. This really needs to be addressed by the entire industry.

Thanks for that added perspective!

Business merger could mean accessibility gains

If you didn’t hear the news last week,
Microsoft is looking to buy Yahoo.
This is really big news in both the business and technology worlds. Microsoft’s CEO believes acquiring the search engine Yahoo would give his company leverage in the online advertising market where Google rules supreme.

So, why am I writing about this here on Access Ability?

The answer is accessibility. Microsoft has worked to integrate accessibility into its products, even allowing engineers from the major assistive technology companies to have advance access to their code when they are working on new operating systems. They do this so that the AT software and hardware can be ready to run upon the new operating system’s release. One can only be optimistic and hope that if Microsoft were to buy Yahoo, then this attention to accessibility would carryover to the new property as well.

I’ve griped here before about Yahoo’s CAPTCHA spam prevention and new mail program, explaining how these were both inaccessible, and that the company seemed to be nonchalant about the accessibility needs of blind computer users. Maybe, just maybe that would change if Microsoft were to buy Yahoo.

This won’t happen overnight, though. There are several issues that the Federal Trade Commission will need to closely examine and scrutinize before such a transaction is allowed to progress. However, the time it takes for all to take place will be well worth it if Microsoft can bring about accessible change at the search engine.

Yahoo continues to employ CAPTCHA without accessible alternative

If somebody says the word” CAPTCHA ,” many people do not recognize it. However, when those same people go on-line and use a web site where they submit something to the site, then are asked to verify that the user is human by typing in the distorted text in a picture, they know what that is, but don’t know what it is called.

These two things are one and the same and CAPTCHA without an accessible alternative is a curse to screen reading programs, which see the image as just another graphic on the page. The blind computer user relying on the screen reader is unable to read the text because the screen reading software sees the image as a graphic, not text, and is unable to discern any text characters from the graphic.

Some people have tagged CAPTCHA without audio, or other accessible workarounds, as a “No Blind People Allowed” sign, a statement that is true in its meaning, even though the host site may have been unintentional in denying access, because the web designer just didn’t even think about denying access when trying to screen out automated, computer generated responses. However, the end result of web inaccessibility is still the same.

It wasn’t that long ago that Google presented this same CAPTCHA problem and one man began an on-line petition to bring the innaccessability of the screening technology to Google’s attention. Google now employs an audio option for its web pages when they employ CAPTCHA.

There are a few other notable web sites which have also made their CAPTCHA accessible, but one giant and globally recognized web site has not—the search engine Yahoo!, which offers a cursory solution to the inaccessibility that many blind users claim does not work. Yahoo! Has employed a policy of “email us your phone number and a Yahoo! Rep will call you,” but the reps apparently do not follow up with their calls. I can personally attest to twice having tried this method, only to have my request ignored by whichever rep received them. I was only able to proceed in what I was doing when I sought sighted assistance, losing both time and productivity.

If a person using a screen reader wants to do something as simple as set up a Yahoo! email account or subscribe to a Yahoo! group, they have to get past this inaccessible CAPTCHA. If the Yahoo! reps are supposed to call these users after they submit their phone numbers, but don't, then the site is simply inaccessible.

Like the previous effort directed at Google, there is now an on-line petition for blind computer users to sign, which is an attempt to bring Yahoo! Into the fold of web accessibility. The web domain
BlindWebAccess.com
Has been set up as an easy to remember web site to help blind computer users get to the petition. (The petition is actually hosted on another site, but this URL will automatically redirect users to the petition.)

As Google and other web sites have demonstrated, accessible alternatives exist that still provide the security the web sites need. This doesn’t have to be expensive, either. There is one solution that is “donationware,” called
FormShield for .NET 2.0

A few years ago, in an honor society newsletter, I read something that truly applies in this case. The quote was “efficiency is doing the thing right, but effectiveness is doing the right thing.” It is time for Yahoo! To step up and do the right thing.

If you know somebody who is a blind computer user, please direct them to the web site above to sign the petition. The web is a wonderful tool and one that should be free of access barriers such as inaccessible CAPTCHA.