Re: ISP wants to stop outgoing web based spam

[Paul Jakma <paul () clubi ie>]

On Wed, 9 Aug 2006, Matthew Black wrote:

> Use of "captchas" has serious accessibility issues:0 
> visually-impaired users will have trouble completing forms. From a 
> legal standpoint, this is a no-go and most definitely not possible 
> for any government or public-sector agency in the United States.

Ditto for at least one EU jurisdiction, and likely several more of 
them.

I can't quite remember if there already is a directive issued, but 
there definitely was/is an EU working group looking at a variety of 
equality issues.

In Ireland, captchas would likely contravene the Equal Status Act of 
2000 with respect to providing services, which applies to *all* 
persons and bodies. I believe the UK may have similar legislation in 
force (though I can't recall the name of the act).

Turing tests can /easily/ be implemented in ASCII, which is 
compatible with screen readers used by the visually impaired.

regards,
--
Paul Jakma      paul () clubi ie        paul () jakma org       Key ID: 64A2FF6A
Fortune:
"I have not the slightest confidence in 'spiritual manifestations.'"
-- Robert G. Ingersoll