I have my online form set up with a "security word" at the bottom - there is a graphic at the bottom that spells a word, and they have to enter the security word in order to submit the form. This helps prevent spam.

My question is this:

How do I make this ADA compliant? Screen-readers won't be able to tell what word is spelled in the graphic. Do I use the ALT or long desc tags? Please help!

Thanks in advance,

This is an interesting question. I have seen sites using a feature where it will play an audio version of the verification code. That is pretty cool. I'm not sure how to solve your problem though... sorry.

I don't think an alt or longdesc would work since it would be readable by automated programs and defeat the security. I'm not sure of the answer myself, but I think Tom might be right about the audio version of the verification.

Hotmail and Craigslist both use "captcha" security - show an image that's a very little bit hard to read, provide audio for people with sight disabilities, and won't let you in unless you type properly.

It's not a security mechanism unless you change it from time to time. If somebody can look at your page once, and then tell their spambots what to post, that's only a little better than not using one at all.

Anyway, you can just speak the letters in your puzzle into a microphone attached to your PC and record a wave file, or mp3. You probably want to give it a name that corresponds with the image, so you can add more later and keep them organized.

This might be useful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha

I have no suggestions but waiting for someone to solve this interesting issue

You could do like this:

<p>please answer this simple question for security reasons:</p>
<label for="captcha">Two Plus Five equals:</label>
<input type="text" name="captcha" id="captcha" />

It's kind of stupid, but it's enough to fool most spiders and doesn't pose any problems to a visually impaired person.

All interesting ideas. I am stuck with using a word (as opposed to "one plus two" logic questions).

My words are pieced together on-the-fly from the 26 separate letters of the alphabet. s-e-c-u-r-i-t-y (as opposed to being one graphic).

With that in mind....what about this:

• What if I linked each letter graphic to a .mp3 audio of the spoken letter? Might that work? A screenreader could tab to each letter and then open the link to hear the letter spoken. Most audio alternatives that I've seen use one mp3 with all of the letters (or numbers), but I don't see why separate mp3s wouldn't work.

OR

• What if I used hidden labels? (See http://webaim.org/techniques/css/invisiblecontent/ ). Would this fool the majority of bots, or would this be no better than "alt"?

WebGrrl

I don't think the hidden labels would really work. The bots are going to read your source code so if you have the security info there they can read it as easily as they could an alt attribute. It's possible that bot authors haven't programmed their bots to look for the label tag, but if people start using it as a means for security they will.

It's really not going to be a good measure of security. Remember it's not about what you would see visually looking at the page, but what could be extracted from the source code.

That's why an image works and that's why the audio would work too.

Just googled and found these interesting gems...

TRYNT Audio CAPTCHA Web Service

Audio & Visual CAPTCHA v1.3 for PHP

http://www.ejeliot.com/pages/2

Hope that helps.

How will you play the sounds on the page? Ask the user to download 7 mp3 files and play them in his winamp? It would be faster for him to ask somebody else to read the captcha.

Originally Posted by Tudor.b

How will you play the sounds on the page? Ask the user to download 7 mp3 files and play them in his winamp?

It play automatically when you click on the link.

This what it sounds like if anyone is interested:
http://www.altoonafirefighters.org/f...av;format=.wav

That link doesn't work...