Sunday, December 16, 2012

Google's Audio reCAPTCHA: A Large Bug

CAPTCHAS enable computer programs to determine if a person or a robot is requesting access. Usually, it is desirable to block robots from accessing a program.

Some people are sight-impaired and must use audio CAPTCHAs.

If you want, you can hear Google's audio reCAPTCHAs by clicking any Blogger Comments icon, and then Audio.

Here is the large bug: 

If you listen to the Google Blogger audio reCAPTCHA instructions, they say: "Please type every digit (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4) you hear". The problem is the visual instructions for the same audio reCAPTCHA are: "Type the words (e.g. one, two, three, four) you hear".

Should sight-impaired users type digits or words?

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