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Originally Posted by ApK
I'll apologize for sounding insensitive, but disabilities deserve reasonable accommodation, not changes that inconvenience the rest of the world.
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Government websites, however, should be accessible to everyone who needs those services, not "the majority of consumers."
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Any petition like the one cited here had better include a better alternative than CAPTCHA for stopping spam if they want my support in eliminating it. Otherwise, it's just not a reasonable request.
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An addition to CAPTCHA would work--some improvements on the current audio system, or the math-etc puzzles suggested. ("Which is bigger: an elephant or a mouse?" "Which of these is a color: round, red, glitter, huge, seven?")
The idea that accessibility is a special feature for a tiny fraction of web-users is what needs to be changed. We don't often think of features like "logos are not constantly blinking" as an accessibility feature, but it is, and many of us remember having to teach commercial sites that the hard way. Not long ago, websites were often built with the assumption that the browser window had to be 1086 pixels wide or you couldn't navigate the site--smartphones killed that approach to webdesign.
"People who can't use the website with its current arrangement" should always be a concern. It shouldn't matter if the cause is a disability, an older computer they can't afford to upgrade, a school environment (plenty of student computers don't have sound available at all), or some other reason.
On top of that, businesses and especially governments are required to make their services available to people with disabilities; they do get some exceptions for extreme hardships or totally incompatible purposes (amusement park rides don't need to hold wheelchairs), but they don't get to just say "but it would cost more to implement the other method."