Stefana Broadbent is a technology anthropologist who studies how people communicate through texting, instant messaging, and social networks. She argues that these new forms of communication are helping to bring people together more than ever before. However, a study by the American Foundation for the Blind found serious accessibility issues that prevent blind users from independently creating accounts and fully participating on major social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, and LinkedIn. CAPTCHAs that require users to type letters and words seen onscreen cannot be completed by blind users without sighted assistance. While making sites accessible would not be difficult and only requires alternatives to CAPTCHAs, proper form labeling, and image descriptions, these changes have not

1. The Social Eye Is there a digital divide we can’t see?

2. Meet Stefana Broadbent

3. She analyzes how we text…

4. …instant message…

5. …and talk on social networks

10. We’re not as connected as we think The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) found serious accessibility issues with major social networking sites.

14. Why? CAPTCHAs. Those abstract renderings of random characters that ask users to retype the word they see on the screen.

20. In your hands With more than 400 causes on Facebook raising money and awareness for the blind, it’s high time we lobby for the vision-impaired to be able to take part in the “democratization of intimacy.”