Yahoo Japan offers Audio Captcha on Japan ID Registration!

By Bernard Maldonado

For some random reason, I decided to open Yahoo Japan early this morning.  I don’t speak Japanese, and certainly cannot read Kanji.  However, what I found was simply amazing!  Keep reading.

Once I landed on Yahoo Japan, I was able to navigate, by pictorial icon, to the Registration Tool.  To my surprise and literal amazement, I discovered that Yahoo Japan offers an audio captcha within their registration.  What?  But there it is.  A dual tab Anti Spam Tool.  The first tab has the visual code, and the second tab has a built in media player with a play button and an refresh button.  I did play the audio.  It’s in Japanese (obviously), and does not seem to be distorted in any way.  This is simply fascinating!  I don’t think the tool requires WMP.  However I am not 100% sure.

So the question is:  if Yahoo can provide audio captcha on the Japanese language site, why not on the English site?  I decided to visit other country Yahoo sites to see if it was particular to Japan.  Yahoo UK doesn’t offer audio captcha, neither does Yahoo Germany.  It is possible that Yahoo Korea offers audio captcha, but I had more difficulty navigating that site to get verification.  This has been the subject of many accessibility blogs and forums: the fact that Yahoo does not offer an audible captcha. 

To see for yourself, open Yahoo Japan Registration and check it out.  If you look at the source html, you will see several references to audio captchas.  The tool, which is embedded in the registration page, works so well.  Seamless, fast, and easy to navigate.  The audio is located on the second tab.  See if you can find the play button, and listen to the code.  If you have a Japanese friend, ask him or her to tell you what the message says.

Whether this is an experiment, or is required by the Government of Japan, it is a wonderful resource for blind people in Japan.  Without knowing the condition of the audio, it appears that a user can manage his or her account independently.  I understand that this still presents a challenge for people with both visual and auditory difficulties.  But having said that, one must praise Yahoo at the same time for providing this accessibility feature within the registration to Japanese users, and at the same time, ask “Why can’t they do this in other Yahoo site?”

One interesting side note is that the written captcha code is presented in the Modern English Alphabet.  It is six characters in length, and looks the same as the other Yahoo image captchas.

I look forward to hearing what some of you have to say about this feature.

Bernard Maldonado.

Tagged as: Accessible Internet, Accessible Registration, Audio CAPTCHA, CAPTCHA, Yahoo Japan