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Effects of Spam Emails on Visually Impaired Accessibility Challenges

Think looking at spam is offensive? Try listening to it. For the millions of blind and visually impaired Internet users around the world, using text-to-speech software is often the only way to check e-mail. But as the spam problem gets worse, more and more of those users are finding that having their e-mail read aloud can be a minefield. Listening to the next message in the inbox may reveal an important letter from an old friend or, more often, an embarrassing ad for penis-enhancement therapy. . . .. Think looking at spam is offensive? Try listening to it. For the millions of blind and visually impaired Internet users around the world, using text-to-speech software is often the only way to check e-mail. But as the spam problem gets worse, more and more of those users are finding that having their e-mail read aloud can be a minefield. Listening to the next message in the inbox may reveal an important letter from an old friend or, more often, an embarrassing ad for penis-enhancement therapy. For many users -- especially youngsters -- the messages amount to an assault on the ears that is just not acceptable. "They end up hearing words that a lot of us wouldn't want to hear when they listen to the subject line," said Carol Cyr, a computer instructor at the Peninsula Center for the Blind in Palo Alto, California. To make matters worse, blind users are finding that they are spending disproportionately more time sorting through their junk e-mail than their sighted colleagues. That's because sighted users can simply scan large batches of messages for that one important piece of mail, whereas blind users must listen to the subject line of each message before they know whether it's spam or not. It's a process that has become so unbearable that some blind users say they are giving up on e-mail altogether. The link for this article located at wired.com is no longer available. . Blind users rely on screen readers for email but face heavy spam issues that complicate their communication, risking identity theft and databreaches.. Spam Filtering, Assistive Technology, Email Accessibility, Blind Users, Text-to-Speech. . LinuxSecurity.com Team

Jun 22, 2004 • LinuxSecurity.com Team Privacy