Re: ASCII Captcha

On 29 Aug 2008, at 21:21, Eric Gorr wrote:

On Aug 29, 2008, at 4:09 PM, Robert Cummings wrote:

On Fri, 2008-08-29 at 15:52 -0400, Eric Gorr wrote:

On Aug 29, 2008, at 3:41 PM, Stut wrote:

I completely agree, but as far as I know it's only (and I use that word carefully) people with both visual and audio impairments that you cannot cater for.

I cannot see any reason why a person with both visual and audio impairments could not be presented with a test to prove they are human.

Go on, I'm all eyes and ears... describe such a test.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha#Attempts_at_more_accessible_CAPTCHAs discusses this. And, I look forward to see what those doing research in this area come up with in the future. It does seem obvious that since they are human, that a good test can be designed which does not rely on security through obscurity.

CAPTCHA's are *not* a security mechanism, no matter what Wikipedia says. They do nothing more than protect from automated form submissions. That's it. Anyway, as that article states... "Often, email or telephone support is used to manually provide access to users who are unable to solve a CAPTCHA" That's ultimate accessibility, assuming it supports all types of telephone, but it's also a major expense needing 24/7 coverage. Not something my company of 5 people could hope to support on a free-to-use site. -Stut -- http://stut.net/