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Re: Towson University Gets Patent For Technology to Help Blind Internet Users

for

From: Mallory van Achterberg
Date: Nov 4, 2014 8:25AM

So the blind are also deaf/hoh still can't use this, or does the
doctor have something for them as well that I missed in the
article?

_mallory
On Tue, Nov 04, 2014 at 01:07:12PM +0000, Clark, Michelle - NRCS, Washington, DC wrote:
> This came from the Maryland NFB newsletter. I found it interesting and hope it is for those of you out there working on the woes using the internet can bring.
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> Michelle
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> Towson University Gets Patent For Technology to Help Blind Internet Users
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> Team creates audio CAPTCHA
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> Editor's Note: The following article from the Baltimore Sun shows that
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> thanks to the efforts of Jonathan Lazar and his students at Towson
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> University, we are making slow, but steady progress in eliminating the
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> CAPTCHA barrier to navigating websites. Many Federationists participated in
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> Dr. Lazar's CAPTCHA sound study. He has been a champion of an accessible
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> Internet for the blind for many years. We look forward to seeing the
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> SoundsRight CAPTCHA being widely adopted.
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> Description: Anne Taylor and Dr. Jonathan Lazar
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> (caption for image) Anne Taylor, Director of Access Technology, Jernigan
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> Institute, National Federation of the Blind, uses braille and QWERTY
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> keyboards in the International Braille and Technology Center for the Blind.
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> Dr. Jonathan Lazar, professor of Computer and Information Sciences at Towson
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> University, is working with her on a technology that makes CAPTCHA, a
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> website security feature, accessible to blind people. (Kim Hairston,
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> Baltimore Sun / April 14, 2014)
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> By Carrie Wells, The Baltimore Sun
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> April 27, 2014
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> While blind people can browse the Internet through a variety of means, there
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> is often one thing that stops them cold-a security feature known as a
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> CAPTCHA that's designed to distinguish human users from robots.
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> CAPTCHAs, in which a user must identify the letters in a distorted image,
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> are commonly used to block automated bots from grabbing up all the tickets
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> for an event, signing up for thousands of email addresses in a short period
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> of time or unfairly swaying the results of an online poll. They have drawn
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> criticism from advocacy organizations for the blind for being too difficult
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> to use, but last month, Towson University
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> <http://www.baltimoresun.com/topic/education/colleges-universities/towson-un
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> iversity-OREDU0000148.topic> secured a U.S. patent for a new kind of
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> CAPTCHA that's intended to be easier for those with limited or no eyesight.
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> With Towson's SoundsRight CAPTCHA, users listen to a series of 10 random
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> sounds and are asked to press the computer's space bar each time they hear a
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> certain noise-a dog barking, a horse neighing-among the other sounds. The
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> developers say it is superior to Google's
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> <http://www.baltimoresun.com/topic/economy-business-finance/computing-inform
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> ation-technology-industry/google-inc.-ORCRP006761.topic> current audio
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> alternative CAPTCHA, citing studies showing that version's failure rate of
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> 50 percent for blind users.
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> "Blind people are capable of doing everything that a visual person can on
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> the Internet," said Jonathan Lazar, a Towson professor who has led a group
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> of graduate and outside researchers on the project. "We just try to come up
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> with some equivalent features that make it easier."
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> "Some people are unaware that blind people can use the Internet," Lazar
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> The SoundsRight CAPTCHA is still in a "beta" version, Lazar said, and the
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> developers are hoping a real-world rollout will help identify any necessary
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> tweaks.
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> The Towson researchers worked closely on testing with the National
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> Federation of the Blind, which is headquartered in the Riverside
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> neighborhood of Baltimore. Anne Taylor, the Federation's Director of access
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> technology, said there are several types of software available for blind
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> users to read the text on a web page aloud. Taylor, who is blind, said not
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> being able to use visual CAPTCHAs could impede a blind person's ability to
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> enjoy the benefits of the Internet and hurt their ability to hold a job.
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> A sighted person could help a blind user with the visual CAPTCHAs, she said,
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> but the blind want to be independent on the Internet. Further, since many
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> CAPTCHAs are on web pages that ask for personal financial information, she
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> has concerns about privacy.
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> "The Internet is such an important and integral part of our daily lives
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> now," Taylor said. "Just think of how many hours you spend on the web as a
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> sighted individual. Would you really want to have someone with you all that
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> time?"
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> CAPTCHA, which stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test
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> <http://www.baltimoresun.com/topic/science-technology/computing-information-
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> technology-industry/alan-turing-PEHST00000279.topic> to tell Computers and
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> Humans Apart, was introduced as a concept by computer scientist Alan Turing
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> in 1950. The term was coined in 2000 by researchers at Carnegie Mellon
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> University who developed an early Web page test program for Yahoo. The
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> CAPTCHAs protect from automated hacking programs that can also leave spam
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> comments on blogs, attack protected passwords and send junk email.
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> Tim Brooks, the chief software developer on the SoundsRight project since
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> 2010, said the audio CAPTCHA can be embedded into any Web page and
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> customized by the webmaster. Brooks said its script could be tweaked to be
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> used in any number of different languages or have users identify any number
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> of sounds. An organization for train enthusiasts, he said, could potentially
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> have users identify the sounds of different types of trains.
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> The SoundsRight CAPTCHA is just as secure as the traditional visual
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> CAPTCHAs, he said. Sighted users can use the audio CAPTCHA as well, or a web
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> page could give the option of either a visual CAPTCHA or the SoundsRight
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> CAPTCHA, he said. The only potential downside to the technology is that it
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> takes about 30 to 40 seconds to complete, versus less than 10 seconds for a
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> visual CAPTCHA, Brooks said.
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> "A lot of people don't have that kind of patience," he said.
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> The Towson CAPTCHA project was the brainchild of then-undergraduate student
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> Jon Holman in 2007 as a class project, Lazar said. In a 2007 focus group,
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> blind users identified visual CAPTCHAs as the biggest impediment to their
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> using the Internet independently. Several other students, faculty members
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> and outside researchers have assisted in developing the technology since the
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> project began.
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> "We've always done the evaluation with blind users at every step," Lazar
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> said. "This was research that was done because blind users were telling us
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> this was important."
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> The project was partially supported with a $50,000 grant from the Maryland
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> Technology Development Corp., Lazar said. The researchers went through
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> several different prototypes, rejecting those that weren't found to be
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> secure enough.
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> The SoundsRight CAPTCHA is in use on the National Federation of the Blind's
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> website, and the organization is working to encourage various groups and
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> businesses to adopt it.
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> "We are all one step away from a sudden disability, so why not make the
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> Internet an inclusive place for everybody?" Taylor said.
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> Thank You,
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> Michelle Clark
> Information Technology Specialist
> Section 508 Coordinator
> Office of the Chief Information Officer
> USDA / Natural Resources Conservation Service
> 1400 Independence Ave. SW.
> Rm. 1669-S
> Washington, DC. 20250
>
> O: 202 2609014
> E-mail: <EMAIL REMOVED> <mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> To learn more about Section 508, go to www.section508.gov<;http://www.section508.gov>;.
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> "Because your own strength is unequal to the task do not assume it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is in the powers and province of man, believe it is within your own compass also!"
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> Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
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