Why would someone do this? [Real question and an expression of frustration!]

[britechguy]

Someone on the blind-centric forums I frequent sent me this URL, https://jackiepost365.com/?p=2252, reporting, ". . . a web page wherein what appears to be a language issue that incorrectly displays the letters o and u such that the text is unintelligible and the ability of NVDA (and JAWS as well) is impaired to the point where they are all but unusable."

Upon examining this page, I've found something I have never encountered before, and here's what I wrote back to the person asking me about this:
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I've had time to look and I can tell you that whoever coded this web page is engaging in some really bizarre trick, and for what reason I do not know.

What seems to be the letter O and U that are tripping you up are not actual O and U, but Small Caps glyphs for these letters. See this Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_caps

In the word "Decision" they even substituted the S with the character described here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dze

Yes, these characters have the same appearances as the English ones they're being used to replace, though it looks like a different font face, but note well that they are not standard English text characters, so screen readers cannot read words written with them. You cannot search that page (even if you're not reading it) on the words "beautiful," "bold," and "decision" and have those words turn up at all, whether using a regular search or screen reader search, because those words, in standard characters, are not there.

Why anyone would embed these in English language text I cannot fathom. And I can't propose any solution since the screen reader and synths are doing the best they can with what amount to nonsense words. If the issue sticks after closing the page, then an issue should be created as this should be driven strictly by the weird text on that page or any page that indulges in this sort of nonsense.
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I am just curious if anyone here knows of any legitimate reason one might do what the person who put up this page has done? (BTW, I checked it with virustotal.com before even visiting it, and every engine declares it safe).

 

[Sky-Knight]

The only reason I can think to do that is to confuse the search engines. That software works on the same premise as screen readers do, and equally cannot read the text.

Considering the content on the site it's my assumption they are intentionally trying to evade robotic identification as a source of fake news.

 

[britechguy]

The only reason I can think to do that is to confuse the search engines.

While I agree, that's just so inexplicable to me in the attention-grabbing, "look at me!," social-media drenched world.

But while many things are too strange to believed, none are too strange to be true!

 

[Sky-Knight]

While I agree, that's just so inexplicable to me in the attention-grabbing, "look at me!," social-media drenched world.

But while many things are too strange to believed, none are too strange to be true!

That stuff spreads via social media sharing though... not organic search results. So by doing this they preserve themselves on social media that's also looking for certain word combos.