Web accessibility issues highlighted on Canadian Ticketmaster
– posted September 7th, 2006 by Laurence Veale Comments (2)
In a recent article published in a popular Canadian IT news website, a number of accessibility issues were discussed. What caught my attention was that screenreader visitors can’t make a purchase on Ticketmaster. The reason for this is there is a visual obstacle (a “visual challenge response system”) in place.
What is a visual challenge response system?
A visual challenge-response system is designed so that only humans can use a form on a website. The reason it was developed is because software (or “bots”) was developed to autofill forms all over the web. These bots could be used to buy up loads of tickets in bulk by unscruplulous touts.
We’ve spotted many examples of this accessibility barrier elsewhere, particularly when carrying out our usability evaluations during our car insurance benchmarking report work. It’s probably used to prevent automatic price checks on car insurance websites or prevent fradulent purchases.
It’s also present on the Irish Ticketmaster site.
User testing ticketmaster with JAWS
We put ticketmaster through its paces with JAWS and surprise, surprise found that it did not pick up on the random muddle image of letters.
However, Ticketmaster did offer an alternative, a link entitled “Can’t see the Word?” which launched a pop-up with information for vision-impaired users.
On this popup there’s a link entitled “Continue ordering accessible tickets here“. Following this link brings you to a page with the event and venue information and a phone number for the “Special Needs Hotline”.
Microsoft’s laudable approach to accessibility issues
Microsoft’s Hotmail uses a similar visual obstacle in the sign up process but tackles the accessibility issue in a more creative way.
They provide an audible alternative, instead of typing the random sequence of letters you see, you can choose to hear them instead.
To me, this is a much better attempt at a truly accessible alternative than just offering a phone number (even if it is a “Special Needs Hotline”). One point worth mentioning, though, was that the audible version was so distorted that I could barely make out what the husky voice was saying!
What do you think, is a phone number an accessible alternative to an inaccessible website?
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Categories Accessibility, Design
2 comments so far
1. Laurence Veale on Sep 8th, 2006 - 10:07
I’ve also posted this blog on the The Irish Design for All e-Accessibility Network (http://www.design-for-all.ie) mailing list. There have been some intersting comments back so far which I’ll post once they are all in
2. Joshue O Connor on Sep 8th, 2006 - 10:24
One point worth mentioning, though, was that the audible version was so distorted that I could barely make out what the husky voice was saying!
I agree Laurence. In terms of quality, they are not there yet.
Josh