6 ms·

The title is clickbait, in the article it says they can verify online. The change is to stop verification over the phone.

cosmic_cheese 1y ago
A lot of older individuals still don’t use the internet in any capacity, not even through a smartphone. For those people, effectively the only option is to visit an office.
acdha 1y ago
You might want to read past the first paragraph before incorrectly claiming it’s clickbait. The fourth paragraph covers why online verification excludes a lot of people - nearly half of older Americans - and the fifth covers the building closures which remove the option many people use to fill that gap. One thing in particular to consider is how painful MFA is for many people, especially those with marginal connectivity or disabilities, and how commonly older people are phished or have malware on their generally older, often unpatched devices. If you haven’t supported a population like this, it’s way more of a barrier than you might think.
- billev2k 1y ago
  MFA is often painful for me, and I've been a dev since we were called "programmers".
  - acdha 1y ago
    Definitely. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen some horrid login flow and cringed to think about what it’s like for people who have visual or cognitive impairments, use a janky old phone they got on one of those lifeline plans, etc. If I’m remembering right, one test with SMS codes with a short expiration (10-15 minutes) had lose to half of older users struggling with delays and the challenge of copy-pasting or remembering only the code within that time limit. We have really lost our way as a field for some basic user experiences and that really shouldn’t be acceptable for government services or companies people need to deal with like utilities, banks, etc.
amazing_stories 1y ago
It's a terrible policy. I know someone who is 74 and never owned a computer. They own a smartphone but only know how to use the phone app and really don't understand texting. I was shocked when I learned this and I imagine there are many people like him.
- ohnoitsahuman 1y ago
  A good portion of people in such situations will have children or loved ones who will walk them through online portion.

cosmic_cheese 1y ago

A lot of older individuals still don’t use the internet in any capacity, not even through a smartphone. For those people, effectively the only option is to visit an office.

acdha 1y ago

You might want to read past the first paragraph before incorrectly claiming it’s clickbait. The fourth paragraph covers why online verification excludes a lot of people - nearly half of older Americans - and the fifth covers the building closures which remove the option many people use to fill that gap. One thing in particular to consider is how painful MFA is for many people, especially those with marginal connectivity or disabilities, and how commonly older people are phished or have malware on their generally older, often unpatched devices. If you haven’t supported a population like this, it’s way more of a barrier than you might think.

billev2k 1y ago
MFA is often painful for me, and I've been a dev since we were called "programmers".
- acdha 1y ago
  Definitely. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen some horrid login flow and cringed to think about what it’s like for people who have visual or cognitive impairments, use a janky old phone they got on one of those lifeline plans, etc. If I’m remembering right, one test with SMS codes with a short expiration (10-15 minutes) had lose to half of older users struggling with delays and the challenge of copy-pasting or remembering only the code within that time limit. We have really lost our way as a field for some basic user experiences and that really shouldn’t be acceptable for government services or companies people need to deal with like utilities, banks, etc.

amazing_stories 1y ago

It's a terrible policy. I know someone who is 74 and never owned a computer. They own a smartphone but only know how to use the phone app and really don't understand texting. I was shocked when I learned this and I imagine there are many people like him.

ohnoitsahuman 1y ago
A good portion of people in such situations will have children or loved ones who will walk them through online portion.