For the second year in a row, Major League Baseball’s on-line ballot for All Star Voting has an audio CAPTCHA. This accessible security feature allows visually impaired fans to independently cast their all star votes on line. The audio CAPTCHA is part of Major League Baseball’s on-going initiative to improve on-line accessibility for blind baseball fans.
In this post you can find
- More information about the 2010 All Star Ballot
- More information about Major League Baseball’s web accessibility initiative
- Additional Information about audio CAPTCHAs
You can also read a Simplified Summary of this Document
Audio Captcha on the 2010 MLB All Star Ballot
Major League Baseball’s on-line All Star ballot allows fans to vote up to twenty five times for their favorite players between now and July 1. To ensure that humans, and not automated computer programs are voting, the ballot uses a CAPTCHA, which it terms a Validation Key. There is both an audio and a visual Validation Key on the MLB ballot.
The visual validation is comprised of distorted characters that the user must type into an edit field. For fans who cannot see the distorted characters, the ballot has a link labeled “Audio Version for Visually Impaired Guests”. When this link is selected, the characters to be entered are spoken out loud. There is also a “repeat audio” link that will repeat the same spoken numbers up to ten different times.
This year’s ballot also includes an Accessibility Help and Information link with troubleshooting tips for using the audio CAPTCHA. That link also lets fans know about MLB’s dedicated email address for accessibility issues which is access [at] website [dot] mlb [dot] com.
Read MLB’s press release about the 2010 All Star Ballot
Go to the MLB 2010 All Star Ballot
Major League Baseball commits to Web Accessibility
This year’s All Star ballot is part of Major League Baseballs on-going commitment to the accessibility and usability of its website for fans with visual impairments. In February of this year, MLB announced its accessibility initiative in a joint press release issued with the American Council of the Blind and its Massachusetts and California affiliates. Read the MLB Web Accessibility Press Release. MLB has improved accessibility on mlb.com and on the sites of all major league teams.
An Accessibility Information Page, linked from the MLB home page, provides additional information. Visit the MLB Accessibility Information Page. In addition, MLB has posted Accessibility FAQs. Vist the Accessibiity FAQs on mlb.com.
As part of its web accessibility initiative, MLB has designed its media players to meet Web Content Accessibilty Guidelines 2.0, Conformance Level AA. All players can be reached through the MLB Media Center. One such player is the Alternative Game Day Audio Player, a stand alone player delivering all Game Day Audio streams.
Visit the 2010 Alternative Game Day Audio Player.
Visit the General MLB 2010 Media Center (includes both MLB-TV and MLB At Bat with Game Day Audio)
Comments or suggestions regarding the accessibility of mlb.com and the sites of the major league teams can be sent by email to access [at] website [dot] mlb [dot] com.
MLB also has a dedicated accessiblity customer service line. Visually impaired fans with accessibility issues may call 866-239-1284.
Additional Information
- Read more about key features for Audio Captchas. The features are part of a post on this website about Google’s purchase of ReCaptcha, a company that provides free audio CAPTCHAs.
Structured Negotiations have been used to negotiate web accessibility agreements with some of the largest entities in the United States. Many of these agreements, including the landmark agreement with the country’s credit reporting agencies, have specific provisions regarding audio CAPTCHAs. For a complete list of all agreements addressing web accessibility, including links to the full agreements, visit the Web Accessibility Settlement Category on this website.
- Read a summary of all the articles on this website about Major league Baseball’s commitment to on-line accessibility by selecting the Major League Baseball Category from the Categories Page.