Mailinblack's mail-blocking captcha thingy

[pauamma]

I had to yell to several of our senators earlier for unrelated reasons, and one has an email address hosted by an outside provider. Turns out the first time you email it, you get an autoreply using the Mailinblack service inviting you to type, in an image with several words, the one that's written in color. So in case you wondered whether someone would make captchas less accessible than they already were, the answer is yes.

(No advice needed - I'm not colorblind myself, it just infuriates me on behalf of any of their constituents who may be.)

Comments

[jadelennox]

what the actual fuck.

[stealthsystem]

Aaaaah nooooooo that's terrible!! Not just for colorblind people, but for totally blind people as well. Because being in an image, if you use one of the free screen readers, probably won't tell you what the words are, and efinitely not which one's in color. Ugh.

[pauamma]

*nod* There's an audio captcha that goes with it, but I haven't tried it, so I can't say whether and how it's inaccessible, but someone who's colorblind but not a screenreader user may be less likely to have sound active on their computer or headphones if using it in public. (And I was already aware of the accessibility problems it would cause for blind people. That's why I wrote "less accessible".)

[stealthsystem]

No no. You're entirely right. That's just terrible. I think DW has the better captchas, and I wish more sites would do that.

[davidgillon]

Dear Senator,

Just emailing to let you know your contracted Mailinblack email service is so inaccessible I'm going to be suing you under ADA.

Yours,
Enjoying the Opportunity Hugely

[pauamma]

I don't know the specifics of accessibility laws in France, and being a senator, they may be shielded by parliamentary immunity anyway, but yes, that one got yelled at twice in quick succession.

[davidgillon]

I knew I should have stuck "(or local equivalent)" following "under ADA"!

Not sure about French law, but it should come under the EU's Web Accessibility Directive (EU 2016/2102)

[pauamma]

*nod* At some point, I'll have to look up whether and how France implemented that directive in its legal system. (Being a directive, if doesn't carry any force until French law says it does and fills in the blanks.)