Why I’m Not Participating in National Blog Posting Month — Or Whatever It’s Called.
Assalamu alaikum, I went to the site to sign up, that was linked to by Umm Zaid, and lo and behold! There was the dreaded captcha, *without* an audio or other accessible alternative!
Now sure I could get my husband or some other sighted person to help me sign up, but I’ve decided not to do that! There isn’t always someone around to help me, and as one other blind blogger put it, putting up a captcha that screen readers can’t read is effectively saying “no blind people allowed” and as a blind person, making me feel as though I’m not welcome.
To me, a captcha is like denying me access to a job based on my blindness, or telling me I have to leave a store or restaurant because of my Leader Dog. I’m not “militant” about many things but accessibility issues and the rights of the blind/visually impaired and disabled to a full, productive, and independent life are two things that I’m uncompromising about! That and the right of people with disabilities to make their own choices in accessibility aids, mobility aids/ways of getting around, and whatever choices they make to allow them to live their lives to the fullest potential.
I will also say that if there is one “prejudice” that I have and that I need to work on is the fact that I consider most non-disabled people to be not only ignorant of the wants, needs, and issues faced by people with disabilities, but also that many non-disabled people play an active role in stifling the growth and aspirations of blind and disabled people.
Whehter it’s not getting a job because you have a disability, or being told by a family member that you can’t have children because you are blind, or having child protective services show up at your house because someone called on you, the blind parent, etc., etc., etc. I could go on and on and on. So to me, the inaccessibility of some websites and other technology is just part of all of that.
Educating people can only go so far, especially if even after “educating” them, they still harbor the same negative stereotypes! To be honest, I’ve given up “educating” people, if they want to learn, they will and if they don’t want to learn, they won’t! I am not the “ambassador of the blind”, even if some want me to be, and even if I may be viewed as such by the wider non-disabled community! I am a normal person, who eats, breathes, sleeps, gets up goes to work, has bad days, has good ones, etc., etc., etc. I am not a super-human genius, or a perverbial child, I am a normal person, except that my eyes don’t work. And I think if people would just understand that, things would be a lot easier for those of us who are blind or visually impaired!
Getting off my soapbox now and going to take Chloe out.
Umm Zaid said,
November 5, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Salaam ‘Alaikum
What is a captcha? Is that the screen where you have to enter a bunch of random characters from a graphic to prove you aren’t a spam bot?
Ginny said,
November 5, 2007 at 11:41 pm
Assalamu alaikum, Umm Zaid, yes, that is exactly what a captcha is. And there is no reason why they either can’t be made accessible or alternatives provided for those with access technology to use sites which employ this technique. BTW, if you’re deaf-blind, the audio captcha is definitely of no use. So that shuts them out even more than just us blind folks.
Umm Zaid said,
November 6, 2007 at 10:57 am
Salaam ‘Alaikum
I’m going to find out why they don’t have one. I can’t believe that an event like this is not accessible to blind people! And, IMPE, those audio captchas are not helpful unless, I guess, you have very good hearing. I had to use it a few days ago for something when the image didn’t load, and found it extremely difficult to understand. I started feeling anxious about it (I replayed it about six times), and eventually quit, reloaded and was able to get the image.
RubyShooZ said,
November 13, 2007 at 8:49 am
Good for you and thank you for bringing this topic up. It’s one that I’m sure many, like me, have never even thought of…although it was brought to my attention once that a friend of mine was color blind and so I made my website that I used to have so that folks with color blindess could see it.
I’m going to try to write about this and I do appreciate you having done so as well.
Thank you.
Peace, love and understanding.
~ RubyShooZ ~
Skye said,
November 19, 2007 at 8:55 am
Thanks for pointing this out, I’m embarrassed to say I noticed it when I signed up but didn’t contact Ning directly to complain. Sorry it took your story to motivate me. I have also contacted Ms. Kennedy and taken another couple of steps to bring attention to this. Hope we can make some progress with Ning.
mrs. kennedy said,
November 19, 2007 at 1:23 pm
I’m going to see what kind of information I can get from the people at Ning, sorry for the roadblock this year, I will work on getting it out of the way for next year.