FRANKIE DeGROOT | Local News | Contact
In a brutal example of the tough times facing today’s primary producers, a local lad has failed a captcha test after the popular security measure asked him to identify pictures containing traffic lights.
“I was trying to sign up for a … you know, a premium online service and it asked me to click on all the boxes containing traffic lights,” explained Will Moore, 23.
“I’ve heard about them, but I’ve never seen one in real life. I hear they are a bit like the lights on level crossings, except one of the lights is green, which means you can go, and there’s also an orange light which means nail your foot to the floor”.
Rural Cyber Accessibility Expert Alexander Regal said website creators needed to consider the life experiences of their customer base when devising security measures.
“Many country folk have never seen a set of traffic lights before. They just don’t know what they look like. Imagine asking someone in Sydney to identify an empty parking space. They would be staring at the screen for hours trying to work it out”.
Regal says the best captcha images should be simple and relatable to people from all backgrounds, like identifying pictures containing windows, cars or signs.
“If you don’t use inclusive images then you are locking out part of your customer base. Asking a country boy to identify traffic lights is like asking him to identify pictures of rain, politicians, or bank branches which are not boarded up.”
Meanwhile, a positive Moore says he will not give up trying to register.
“I’m going to log out and try to sign up for a Premium membership again,” he said.
“Maybe next time it will ask me to click on pictures with a Holstein Friesian or Ferguson TE20”.
Moore to come.
