Visually Impaired? Here, let's try and make this a little more difficult for you.

Dot .Net Dilemmas

I get the need for CAPTCHA on a website but, I really don't like it as a solution to preventing automated site attacks. I see it as real barrier to purchasing online as more often than not, it takes a number of attempts to get the word(s) entered just how the software wants to see it. Unless I really want something, I hit the 'X' in the top left hand corner of the browser. Now I'm a web developer and I find it tricky and annoying so I can only imagine how frustrating it is to someone who is simply trying to purchases tickets online for the first time, to see Celine Dion live in concert.

Now think about how much more difficult the whole process is if you are visually impaired. Recently I was trying to purchase tickets online (not to Celine Dion, I promise) when before the application would even let me know if there were any tickets still available I was hit with this:


I wasn't 100% sure what the words were (even after clicking 'Try another' a few times) so, I had a look around for some help. There right under 'Try another' is 'Vision Impaired' see it?


Don't get me wrong, it is a good idea and anything that helps people with a disability access to the web is a good thing; but just look how small it is... If you are visually impaired and can not see or make out the words in the Security Check, how on earth are you meant to see the tiny 'Vision Impaired' text?

Moving on, let's pretend that I am visually impaired and I have someone who is able to tell me what I should do next close by. I click on 'Vision Impaired' expecting to see the words displayed over the whole page in letter so big that you can make them out from space but no...
What you get next is an even smaller screen, that plays an audio of some numbers (that you are meant to type in to the text box provided) over the tops of some ghost like moaning and whispering.

So, if you are visually impaired, you first have to be able to find the 'Vision Impaired' link. If you some how miraculously find it and click on it, you have to find the play button and then hope that your PC or laptop has a sound card. If it does, you had better hope that your hearing isn't also impaired (it would explain wanting to see Celine Dion in concert) and than you are able to make out the numbers from the ghostly bingo caller.

As I said, I really don't like the CAPTCHA approach (I understand that it is easy to criticise and I haven't come up with anything better) but surely this is an idiotic solution to a very simple problem. If you are expecting people who are visually impaired to use your site, make it so easy for them. Just make the letters and words BIGGER...

It's my party and I'll... keep listening to my iPod if I want to.

Dot .Net Dilemmas

Why do offices (usually HR) insist on having employee birthday celebrations? Ok, I'll admit, I am a bit of a strange one when it comes to forced celebrations (hey, it's your birthday, you HAVE to be happy today... Did you hear me? BE HAPPY!!!!!). However, I can think of few things worse than looking up from my work and having to take my headphones off as the whole office stand around my desk, arms folded with a look on their face that falls somewhere between boredom and pure pain just to wish me a happy birthday.

It's happened in almost every company I've worked in and there is just no need for it. None!!!! It is pointless and simply a management exercise in touchy feely. The majority of people that I know hate it, really, really hate it. Granted, most people I know in a work environment are programmers and they aren't too fond of any social interaction. The worst thing about it all is that I have NO say whatsoever in it happening. It's suppose to be MY birthday yet, I sit here all day feeling slightly ill knowing that at any moment I am going to be surrounded by some people who never really speak to me, but are now going to sing to me...

So, it's my birthday today and I am sitting here writing this and waiting... Waiting and trying to take my mind of what's to come. I now believe strongly that it's not the getting older as to why most people hate their birthday it's waiting, like a man on death row, for the forced office 'celebration' to begin.
Time for my happy face... Tick, tick, tick....