BC Update: Blog Carnival Releases a "Statement"

I got a letter from Blog Carnival today,

I open and read it, it said they were suckas…

 

A little play on a Public Enemy lyric.

 

After several attempts to contact Blog Carnival and inform them  that their use of visual  only CAPTCHA excludes  people who are visually impaired, I finally receive a response.

 

I would love to hear from others in the community especially those who use the BC service. My response which follows BC’s note, says how I feel.

 

Here it is…

—– Original Message —–
From: "BlogCarnival Support" <support@blogcarnival.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2008 3:12 PM
Subject: Re: Blog Carnival Refuses to admit the blind community

Thomas –

Thanks for your email about CAPTCHA and about the visually impaired
community.

Unfortunately, Blog Carnival doesn’t have plans at this time to implement
CAPTCHA.  We are considering redesigns of the site, but we do not have a
timeline for that.  We will keep CAPTCHA in mind as we look at redesign
options.

Good luck with your efforts to make the web a better place!

Yours,

Denise
Support@BlogCarnival.com

—

 

My response…

—– Original Message —–
To: "BlogCarnival Support" <support@blogcarnival.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2008 6:34 PM
Subject: Re: Blog Carnival Refuses to admit the blind community

Denise,

Thanks for the response.

You said,"Unfortunately, Blog Carnival doesn’t have plans at this time to
implement
CAPTCHA."

By this I am assuming you mean no plans to introduce alternative CAPTCHA
solutions. That’s really too bad. Blog Carnival is missing out on an
opportunity to make a statement not only to those with visual impairments,
but the entire disability community. The statement, "Your participation is
important to us."

I guess there is the possibility of an alternative statement based on the
future redesign.

Based on this response, I personally will forgo from participating in
carnivals that use BC. I will continue to make others aware of the official
statement.

Feel free to let me know if there are any changes in Blog Carnival’s
position on visual only CAPTCHA.

Respectfully,
T.Reid

Posted by T.Reid on May 4th, 2008 and is filed under Accessibility, Advocacy, BC Update.

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2 Responses to “BC Update: Blog Carnival Releases a "Statement"”

  1. Ron Graham says:
    May 6th, 2008 at 1:48 pm

    Thomas,

    Thank you for sharing that. Her letter totally made my blood boil.

    I suppose it’s a free world and, as a private venture, Blog Carnival is not tethered to the required web standards. However, I would think that a business whose sole existence is on the web would want to model good standards. Then again, I’m assuming here that BC actually has any standards.

    I don’t know which is worse; when you had no reply from BC regarding the inaccessible CAPTCHA, or their actual response. The first you interpret that you are being ignored as if your input doesn’t matter and the second is blatantly being told that your input doesn’t matter.

    I’m still steamed. But, I’m still going to pursue this.

  2. T.Reid says:
    May 6th, 2008 at 3:14 pm

    Ron,

    I am glad you are steamed! Obviously I am not satisfied with the way this turned out, but notice I didn’t say ended.

    I have a few things in mine on how to continue applying some pressure to Blog Carnival. Check back for more information and by all means feel free to let me know if you have any specific ideas.

    I would love to see as many people in our community get involved. BC did not just slap me in the face with their response, I believe they slapped us all!