Subject: 3. Requirements - Accessibility (was Re: [Asrg] News Article - Turing Tests and the Blind)

From: Yakov Shafranovich <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 02 Jul 2003 20:08:53 -0400

I was concerned about accessibility issues with Turing tests for C/R 
systems (this is related to the CRI protocol me and Eric Dean are working 
on). I contacted the relevant person at W3C and posting the response to the 
group.

Yakov

>Date: Wed, 02 Jul 2003 18:12:29 -0400
>To: Yakov Shafranovich <[email-masked]>
>Subject: Re: Fwd: [Asrg] News Article - Turing Tests and the Blind
>
>Yakov,
>
>To clarify what Paul said in the CNET article: the W3C/WAI Protocols and 
>Formats Working Group is _thinking_ about the issue; and the Web Content 
>Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (WCAG WG) has the issue on their 
>issue tracking list. Various informal conversations have taken place 
>outside of those settings as well. I would be happy to fill you in more 
>and to connect you with the relevant people. It is part of a general 
>problem with the intersection of information assurance and 
>accessible/universal design.
>
>I told Paul that if the WCAG WG comes up with effective _techniques_ to 
>address this problem, they would likely be included in an updated Working 
>Draft of the Techniques document that accompanies a future Working Draft 
>of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. W3C does not anticipate 
>developing a "standard for Turing tests" -- the techniques layer of our 
>WAI Guidelines are non-normative. But I do expect that we can contribute 
>ideas to the development of effective solutions for this problem.

---snip---

>At 12:12 PM 7/2/2003 -0400, Yakov Shafranovich wrote:
>>Hi,
>>
>>I am a member of the Anti Spam Research Group (ASRG) of the IRTF 
>>(www.irtf.org/asrg/). I recently saw you being quoted in the following 
>>news article regarding developing web accessibility standards for Turing 
>>tests. If it possible, can you point me to the specific working groups 
>>and standards that are working on this issue. Also, if it possible can 
>>you summarize for the our group what exactly is W3C planning on doing 
>>regarding Turing tests.
>>
>>Yakov
>>
>>>To: [email-masked]
>>>From: Yakov Shafranovich <[email-masked]>
>>>Subject: [Asrg] News Article - Turing Tests and the Blind
>>>Sender: [email-masked]
>>>List-Id: Anti-Spam Research Group - IRTF <asrg.ietf.org>
>>>List-Archive: <https://www1.ietf.org/pipermail/asrg/>
>>>Date: Wed, 02 Jul 2003 12:03:19 -0400
>>>
>>>
>>>This News.com article (http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-1022814.html) 
>>>discussed a problem with using visual Turing tests - the blind cannot use it.
>>>
>>>---snip---
>>>Efforts to create tests aimed at distinguishing humans from machines go 
>>>back decades, with the most famous formulation of the problem posed in 
>>>1950 by the English mathematician and World War II "Enigma" code breaker 
>>>Alan Turing. Turing's controversial hypothesis was that a machine could 
>>>be defined as "intelligent" if a questioner could be fooled into 
>>>believing it was a person.
>>>
>>>Visual tests in a sense turn that theory on its head, assuming that a 
>>>machine is defined by its inability to perform a task that is easy for 
>>>most humans to accomplish.
>>>
>>>The increasingly popular visual test, and the difficulty of using 
>>>current work-arounds, has raised enough hackles among advocates for the 
>>>disabled that working groups within the World Wide Web Consortium's 
>>>(W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative have begun discussions on how to 
>>>standardize an alternative.
>>>
>>>Two WAI working groups are hashing out proposals to guide Web sites in 
>>>designing blind-friendly bot repellants, and the WAI hopes to address 
>>>the issue in the next working draft of its Web Accessibility Guidelines, 
>>>Version 2.0, which is due by year's end. So far, published working 
>>>drafts of the guidelines are silent on the issue.
>>>----snip----
>>>
>>>As Vernon pointed out previously we do not know for sure if these tests 
>>>cannot be passed by a machine. Also, nothing can stop spammers from 
>>>hiring real people to do the task. The financial difference would be 
>>>negligible. This raises the issue of whether the tests are needed in the 
>>>first place. C/R systems also fall under this issue.
>>>
>>>It would be worthwhile to contact the W3C in order to keep abreast of 
>>>any standards they make in the area.
>>>
>>>Yakov

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