Accessible and secure? Design constraints on image and sound based passwords

When members of society cannot access the World Wide Web, or the information and services it contains in a meaningful or useful way, they can become digitally excluded. Many factors have been highlighted as having an effect on the likelihood of exclusion, including psychological, material and skills related barriers. In this paper, we consider the role played by authentication systems in the divide. In light of the widely researched tension between aspects of usability and security in authentication, we identify a number of conflicting accessibility and security goals as manifested in image and sound based schemes.