solving audio catpchas is not working in beta

By Siobhan, 31 January, 2024

Forum
Apple Beta Releases

Has anyone had issues filling an audio captcha? I know at least the latest beta of 17.4 and the one before it, this behavior just doesn't work. Videos play just fine, like small adds. Is this only in the beta cycle? Running the latest update. Thanks

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Comments

By Scott Davert on Friday, February 2, 2024 - 13:12

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Isn't it annoying? This is the kind of discriminatory lack of access DeafBlind people face every day.

By Brian on Friday, February 2, 2024 - 13:12

Does the audio play at all, or is it more of an issue of getting into the text field? I am just curious.

By Siobhan on Friday, February 2, 2024 - 13:12

Brian, if you're on a website, any one, you get a captcha. You click, Get audio challenge. You're presented with a button. You click, you hear, you write in, done! On the phone, you enter the area, press the "play button". Nothing. So yes I can get into the text field. Scot, I'm honestly sorry you and others in the community are having issues. However, how can it be solved? I'm asking, not starting anything like a fight. If you can't solve a captcha, how can it be determined to solve, if they are trying to prevent a computer from solving it for you? Again, asking, not being snarky or rude. I do hope you all get something but in all honesty, if you or any deaf-blind participant needs help, I'd be glad too. Contact me off list and i'll do my best.

By Tyler on Friday, February 2, 2024 - 13:12

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Honestly, with the recent advances in AI capabilities, I have serious doubts as to the real world effectiveness and longevity of the captcha as we know it, as I'd imagine if not now, in the very near future, they will be rendered effectively useless. The processes that present-day captchas employ, such as identifying objects in an image or interpreting what is being spoken and converting it to text are well within the capabilities of current AI models, and they're expected to only get more powerful and capable with time and continued development.

In 2022, Apple introduced Private Access Tokens as a standard, which aims to eliminate or significantly reduce the number of captchas users encounter by associating a token with their Apple ID that can be used to affirm their humanness without identifying them personally. Similar to biometric login with Face ID or Touch ID, this process works by relying on the local device to affirm the user's humanness rather than sharing the token or Apple ID information with apps and websites. As this technology is not Apple-specific, it's not hard to imagine apps and websites adopting this standard at some point. I believe if nothing else, the Internet will have to reckon with the obsolescence of the captcha, and adopt something that provides greater assurance and accessibility.

By Brian on Friday, February 2, 2024 - 13:12

So, no audio then? 😝

That would be rather frustrating. Hopefully Apple will not ignore this.

By Scott Davert on Friday, February 2, 2024 - 13:12

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Hi Siobhan. Basically, the solution is in what Tyler wrote. I was mostly replying to say that I feel your pain. Certainly not trying to start an argument at all. Smiles
I'm assuming that you have also tried Safari? If you give me a page with one of these things that let's us party like it's 1999, I'll see if I can replicate and will file a bug report on it. If you do the same, and I can duplicate the issue, I'll file a bug report. I can't understand most audio captchas, but I can tell whether audio plays from them or not.

By Jimmy on Friday, February 2, 2024 - 13:12

Well, I can't say how times and times again, AI assistance has helped me take a step closer to asserting my own liberty and independence, especially over here in the developing Vietnam. Don't mean to generalise, but more often than not, people are just too worn out with making ends meet to give a dang about accessibility. That's where learning to be resourceful, creative, compassion, and above all perhaps, learning to be patient is key to your survival and thriving to some extent haha 😝.
Just to give you an idea. All most all bank login portals here require capcha. The same for almost all other local daily apps like instant messaging and online-shopping. Even the government e-portals could not manage to squeeze in any accessible capcha solution whatsoever.
Those are the constant stream of instances that I really want to give community members like Chi Kim a curtsey while presenting my sincere gratitude. All thanks to tools like VOCR that I could jump through these hoops all on my own using its latest and presumably improved VO cursor OCR feature.
Btw, Be My Eyes is a good tool, but still, not having to depend on some other person does feel better.
Any-road, sorry for ranting all over. Please just delete my comment if it's out of place🙈.

By Siobhan on Friday, February 2, 2024 - 13:12

Yeah sorry about that, Scot. I misunderstood the direction you were trying to go. Oops? The reason I haven't tried safari, is i use an app called miles, where I get miles for doing things like walking, driving, flying etc. I take surveys to boost the miles and that's where I find the inaccessible captchas. I don't use safari much on my phone so I didn't try that. I'm sure it will be fixed, just don't remember where it went wonky in the first place. :)