Social networking sites lock out disabled users

According to a research published by AbilityNet on January 18 2008, social network websites may appear inclusive but they are far from it.

They are effectively ‘locking out’ disabled visitors, the majority of whom can’t even register, let alone participate in the on-line communities they wish to join. This gross oversight is not only unethical, it is also clearly in contravention of the Disability Discrimination Act (1999). 1

All of the sites reviewed by AbilityNet consultants and tested by 100 disabled users require a Security Check using a CAPTCHA image before a user can sign up. As AbilityNet points out :

Those unable to interpret the graphic due to vision impairment, dyslexia or learning difficulties are therefore blocked from proceeding any further. 2

The sites tested included Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Yahoo, and Bebo. I decided to take a look at the registration page of these sites myself. On the registration page of Facebook, if you click on “What’s this” above the CAPTCHA image, a small pop up will appear explaining why there is a need for security check. You can then click on the name of Facebook’s CAPTCHA provider which is ReCaptcha. Another pop-up will show up, including the following message :

Visually impaired users can click the audio button to hear a set of digits that can be entered instead of the visual challenge. 3

But at my end, the audio button was nowhere to be found. Update: Luis from reCAPTCHA left a comment to confirm what I suspected: the audio is only shown to users who have a screen reader. Thank you, Luis, for confirming this! The registration pages of YouTube, Yahoo!, Bebo and MySpace didn’t seem to offer any alternative other than refreshing the image.

According to the report, the problems do not stop there. Graphic links, absolute text sizing and incompatibility of many features with assistive technologies (such as screen reading software), are among the other issues explained in the report.

Hopefully one of these social network sites will take the lead toward greater accessibility but, according to AbilityNet, they have not been very responsive so far.

I did a search for “accessibility” in the Facebook groups and found one called The Official Petition for a more Accessible Facebook (412 members on January 26 2008). This group linked to a Facebook Blog post regarding the now accessible Gift Shop feature. According to the Facebook team, “most Facebook pages adhere to the guidelines which make the site accessible to the blind community. 4” But according to posters in the Facebook group mentioned above, there is still some work to do.

Read the full report at : http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/enation85

1. 1. Social networking sites lock out disabled users, AbilityNet, January 18 2008, Retrieved on January 26 2008.
2. 2. Ibid
3. 3. reCAPTCHA, Retrieved on January 26 2008.
4. 4. The Gift Shop is Now Open…for Everyone, The Facebook Blog, Apr 24, 2007, Retrieved on January 26 2008.