Yahoo Responds!
As you may have seen in yesterday’s article and subsequent comments, Yahoo has a visual verification system that requires new users to type the characters displayed in a picture in order to be approved for an account. The alternative Yahoo provides for users with visual impairments is a form through which you can request that a customer service representative call you—not as good as being able to access an audio representation of the picture immediately, like Hotmail provides, but still an indication that Yahoo cares about this issue.
I was having one of my cup-half-full days yesterday, so I accepted Yahoo’s promise to contact me should I request they do so, and didn’t bother filling out the form as I already have an account with them. After Darrell reported his failed attempts to overcome this barrier through Customer Service departments, I decided to fill out the form. That was at 11PM yesterday. And, yes, I do need to get a life, but that’s not the point.
Today, at 12:15 PM, Allan from Yahoo called ready to set me up with an account. I really wanted to go through the process, had my laptop on the Yahoo page and JAWS on, but I’m a wretched liar. I fessed up. I did have a good conversation with Allan though. He went over what he would have done had I actually been a blind user in need of a Yahoo account, namely ask me the questions that are on the form filled out by all new users, assign my account a generic password, and send me an email with the instructions on how to change it to something more secure. He also gave me a toll-free number that you can call if you don’t want to wait for Yahoo to call you: 866-458-8701. Finally, I talked to Allan about Hotmail’s solution to this issue. He had heard of it, but didn’t say the words that I was hoping to hear: “Yes, we’re about to implement that.” Instead, he gave me an email address where I could submit my request: [experience@yahoo-inc.com](mailto:experience@yahoo-inc.com “Email Yahoo”). On a cup-half-empty day, I’d say, “Why bother?” But I’m going to give it a shot. Darrell commented:
We must respond so as to insist on the removal of unnecessary, artificial barriers to our participation!
I agree. But “we” have to be a sufficiently large group in order for them to take notice. So here is my suggestion: If you are reading this, you must care about access issues for people with visual impairments. Therefore please email [experience@yahoo-inc.com](mailto:experience@yahoo-inc.com “Email Yahoo”) and request that Yahoo provide an alternative to the visual verification system they currently require of new users. This alternative should be provided in such a way that it is clear to the user who is blind how to obtain this alternative, such as Hotmail’s “I can’t see this picture link.” The “More Info” link is not sufficiently clear. In addition, this alternative should be available at the same time as the picture, so that all users can sign up for accounts without having to depend on sighted assistance or wait for calls from customer service representatives.
—jd
March 10th, 2005 at 8:35 am
I wrote and sent the following letter to Yahoo:
March 10, 2005
Dear Yahoo Management Team:
I am a blind information technology professional, accessibility advocate and publisher of the Blind Access Journal found at http://www.blindaccessjournal.com. We are extensively covering the use of visual verification schemes and their impact on Internet users whom are blind or visually impaired.
Yahoo uses visual verification to secure such functions as the ability to create a new account or to manage a Yahoo Group. The user is expected to be able to see characters presented in a distorted picture and enter those same characters into an edit field. Yahoo’s only current method of providing accessibility is for the blind user to complete an online form and hope that someone calls back in a reasonable amount of time.
I and many of my blind colleagues have tried your accessibility solution to visual verification. While our sighted peers are able to perform tasks instantaneously after completing the visual verification process, we must wait 12 or more hours after completing the form for a call from Yahoo in order to complete the same tasks! These situations clearly show that the current access solution is totally insufficient. It serves to force the blind user to the very, very back of the bus!
Please provide better accessibility to your visual verification systems by providing a link to an audio version of the characters to be entered into the edit field, so that we may have the same level of access to Internet resources as our sighted peers. I look forward to a prompt positive response from someone in Yahoo’s management team concerning this critical issue.
Sincerely,
Darrell Shandrow