The functionality of the RuCaptcha service, which helps businesses recognize text images on the Internet, became unexpectedly useful for blind people. The company has launched a Telegram bot and plans to develop an application.

RuCaptcha is a russian version of wide-known English-language service for solving CAPTCHAs — 2captcha.com

According to the WHO, today in the world there are about 217 million people with moderate and severe visual impairments, 36 million of which are blind. Modern technologies constantly open up new opportunities for them to integrate into the IT environment. Most of the visually impaired use the screen access programs to be able to use the Internet, which read what is happening on the screen, as well as speech synthesizers that convert digital information into speech.

Obstacle for bots and the blind people

Nevertheless, there are more and more graphics on the Internet, and one of the main problems for the blind and visually impaired is CAPTCHA — computer tests designed to identify and allow real users while blocking access to the site for programs that collect information. To confirm that you are human, you need to enter a randomly generated set of characters or recognize images and answer a question — such tasks are not covered by existing programs for the blind. Of course, there are cases when CAPTCHA has an audio version — this is a step towards people with disabilities. If more sites would use this type of CAPTCHA, this would partially solve the problem.

However, today market participants often forget about the needs of visually impaired and blind people, so they have to deal with the problem in other ways. To get around this obstacle, usually paid browser extensions are used. A typical problem in such cases is the search for a new solution when changing the browser. In addition, those extensions usually are on English, which not everyone knows well enough. The solution to these problems for russian-speaking audience was recently proposed by RuCaptcha. The company launched the @BlindCaptchaBot bot on Telegram, which helps visually impaired and blind people to solve CAPTCHA.

How the RuCaptcha and 2captcha services works

RuCaptcha specializes in automatic image recognition, but usually provides this service to businesses. For example, the service is used by companies that need to check positions in the search engines. The service is also necessary for businesses to collect and analyze large amounts of data. The principle of operation is simple: the client uploads the CAPTCHA and within a few seconds receives a response. Images actually are being solved by employees on freelance, that is, the service makes it possible to solve all the images that a human can recognize. To configure the process of sending CAPTCHA, client companies receive a software interface (API), which allows their software to be integrated with the service. The cost of the service depends on the complexity of the CAPTCHA and the workload of the service.

How does the bot work?

The company decided to launch the Telegram bot after developer of products for the visually impaired informed RuCaptcha about the problem of blind people with CAPTCHA. The functionality of the RuCaptcha service in the bot was adapted to the needs of the blind. The mechanics of work here are also very simple: the user sends a screenshot of the page to the bot and receives the CAPTCHA text in response, which then can be voiced or copied. When launched, the bot promises to return a response within a minute, while recognition itself, depending on complexity, can take from 3 to 20 seconds. The bot is paid, but at first the user can test it with free ten recognitions. Based on the results, the company collects feedback to refine the service.

There are several ways for the development of the project, including translation into other languages ​​and adding support for different messengers. One of the most promising ways is to develop a mobile application that would reproduce the functionality of the Telegram bot. This will not only save the product from being tied to messengers with their limitations, but also create an alternative to existing extensions that are tied to specific browsers. In addition, the translation into other languages can be implement in such application. In the future, such an application could become a universal tool to help blind people use the Internet.