News24 fails blind people

Rather disgracefully, News24 does not allow blind people to comment on the stories they publish.

Unlike Google and MSN and various other sites, the CAPCHA facility (the bit that says enter the letters you see) on News24 and the 24.com network more widely, is completely inaccessible to blind or visually impaired people.

Other sites offer an audio feature, where the user can click and then here an audio recording of the letters being spoken. There is no reason why the 24.com sites cannot implement such a system.

Furthermore, many of the pictures on the 24.com sites are unlabled and the flash object on the health24 front page is completely inaccessible.

It is extraordinary that South Africa's largest online publisher is showing such a blatent disregard for accessibility issues.

See this link for guidelines: http://www.w3.org/WAI/ There is no reason why this cannot be fixed.