[gui-talk] will Webvisum be rendered useless?

Mon Jun 27 18:21:37 UTC 2011

One possible solution, though it does depend on human interaction, is
the new free VizWiz app for the IOS devices. Your IOS device needs a
camera and preferrably a WiFi connection. Essentially, you take a
picture of something, record a spoken question, and then submit it to
several sources, including a collection of "web workers" (probably
some sort of website/service, but not sure), a database of products
that oMoby uses as well, email it to someone or post it to your
Twitter feed for your followers to examine. Of these options for
getting a name for a product, the web workers are probably more
helpful since often they tell you the picture is blurry, you need to
move the camera closer or that they cannot see whatever you're trying
to identify. I used this app last night to identify some cans of pasta
and was pleased with the results. At one point, I had 2 cans, one that
was closer to the iPhone than the other. The result I got from the web
worker told me that the nearer can was turned so they couldn't see the
label, but they did tell me what the further can was. I mention VizWiz
for CAPTCHA solving because I have read of one instance of someone
using VizWiz to identify a CAPTCHA. The CAPTCHA ended up not working
for the user, but the web worker correctly identified it. I've heard
of other people using VizWiz to identify other things, like whether
lettuce was fresh, what boxes and cans were, and so forth. The real
power of VizWiz is that you can record any question, from "What is
this?" to "What does my screen say?" to, "What's in this box?"

Anyway, just a thought. Hopefully at some point VizWiz will be taken
to other platforms like Android and so forth.

Sincerely,
Wayne Merritt

On 6/27/11, Peter Donahue <pdonahue2 at satx.rr.com> wrote:
> Hello Gerald and everyone,
>
>     Perhaps if screen reader users pressed their product developers to
> address this issue something would happen. I saw the demise of WevVism and
> Silona long ago. So much for relying on third parties to solve captchas for
> you. Taking the user interaction out of the bot protection equation will go
> a long way to resolving the accessibility issues these things have created
> for the blind and deaf-blind. The ColdFusion Community is to be given credit
> for taking a major step in eliminating the accessibility issues posed by
> captchas on Web pages with the development of CFForm Protect. As I said
> before we need to find out if there are similar solutions for other Web
> languages, frameworks, and environments and promote their use instead of
> captchas.
>
> Peter Donahue
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Gerald Levy" <bwaylimited at verizon.net>
> To: "Discussion of the Graphical User Interface, GUI Talk Mailing List"
> <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Monday, June 27, 2011 11:46 AM
> Subject: Re: [gui-talk] will Webvisum be rendered useless?
>
>
>
> The real problem is that the major screen reader companies, FS and GW Micro,
> have so far shown absolutely no interest in adding captcha solving
> capabilities to JAWS and Window Eyes, respectively.  This should certainly
> be technically feasible.
>
>
> Gerald
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com>
> To: "Discussion of the Graphical User Interface, GUI Talk Mailing List"
> <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Monday, June 27, 2011 11:50 AM
> Subject: Re: [gui-talk] will Webvisum be rendered useless?
>
>
>> Not enough money; not enough personnel. I also heard a rumor that the
>> person operating it has been ill.
>>
>> If you ask me, *any* service dependent upon human interaction is bound to
>> be less-than-reliable at best.
>>
>> Mike
>>
>> On Jun 27, 2011, at 6:20, Tai Blas <Tai.Blas at blind.state.ia.us> wrote:
>>
>>> What is going on with Solona? Every time I try to use it, I am unable to.
>>> Tai
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ______________ _
>>> Tai Blas
>>> Transition Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor
>>> Iowa Department for the Blind
>>> 524 Fourth Street
>>> Des Moines, Iowa 50309
>>> Office: (515) 281-1253
>>> Toll-free: (800) 362-2587
>>> Mobile: (515) 250-2160
>>> Email: tai.blas at blind.state.ia.us
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> See what your state government is accomplishing at
>>> http://www.idbonline.org
>>>
>>>
>>> One Iowa, One Unlimited Future
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>>> Behalf Of Gerald Levy
>>> Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2011 3:03 PM
>>> To: Discussion of the Graphical User Interface, GUI Talk Mailing List
>>> Subject: Re: [gui-talk] will Webvisum be rendered useless?
>>>
>>>
>>> This could become a serious problem.  At some point, the software
>>> developers at Webvisum will simply give up trying to keep up with each
>>> new release of Firefox.  And because Solona is already on life support,
>>> there soon may be no captcha solving solutions left.  I suggest hanging
>>> onto Firefox 4 or earlier as long as you can.  Besides, the screen
>>> readers won't be able to keep up with each new Firefox release, either.
>>>
>>> Gerald
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Ken lawrence" <kenlawrence124 at aol.com>
>>> To: <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
>>> Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2011 5:21 PM
>>> Subject: [gui-talk] will Webvisum be rendered useless?
>>>
>>>
>>>> Hi Ken here.  I read in Kim Komando's email that firefox has started a
>>>> new
>>>> schedule they will be new versions of the browser every too months.  I
>>>> just got the update automaticly today and they are recommending you
>>>> install it since no more updates will be made for version 4.  So in two
>>>> months for example version 6 or maybe 5 point something or other.
>>>> Webvisum has been disabled since it isn't updated.  the firefox browser
>>>> says it will enable it if it has an update.  But can webvisum possible
>>>> keep up with a two months schedule?  is our capcha solver useless thanks
>>>> to this new timetable by firefox?
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
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