Where It's AT – Assistive Technology Blog

Contributed by Joel Zimba, Special Projects Coordinator, MDTAP

The World Intellectual Property Organization is considering a treaty which will make books more accessible to the blind.  We think this is great news and would like to show our support for the treaty by signing a petition at whitehouse.gov:

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/side-blind-over-obstructionist-companies-secure-treaty-blind-makes-books-accessible-globally/ZJtgcVph

The below is an excerpt from the website which gives a much more eloquent description than I can properly render.

“We petition the Obama administration to:

Side with the blind over obstructionist companies to secure a Treaty for the Blind that makes books accessible globally.

Less than 1% of printed works globally are accessible to the blind. This is because laws around the world bar printed material from being turned into formats useable by the blind and visually impaired, or for such material to be shared across borders.

That’s why 186 countries will soon convene in Morocco to finalize a Treaty that would empower the world’s nearly 300 million blind citizens with the same rights to read, learn, and earn that the sighted enjoy. However, huge and powerful corporations – many wholly unaffected by the proposed Treaty – are working to fatally weaken it or block its adoption.

Ask the President to compel US negotiators to fight for a strong Treaty that gives blind people equal access to books and doesn’t burden those who want to provide them. Please sign today!”

 BUT…

Did you sign the petition?  Great, easy, mere moments—unless you are using a screen reader like Jaws for Windows.  The White House requires a registration process which depends on a visual captcha process.  That’s the technical name for the little box where you type the fuzzy words in the box to prove you are a human user and not some sort of automated system.

That’s right, a petition for blind people is basically inaccessible. It’s true there is a process for an audio version of the captcha to be played to you.  I tried this 3 times.  The words, if they are words, are so scrambled as to be incomprehensible.  What is to be done?

It turns out there is a plug-in for the Firefox web browser called WebVisum which can solve captchas.  It worked flawlessly for this site.  That’s great if you have a particular computer, running Windows and Firefox.  For Mac owners there is a more complicated solution.  If you want to solve a captcha using a tablet or some other device, you are out of luck.

In response, the National Federation of the Blind has started an alternate petition – https://nfb.org/civicrm/petition/sign?sid=2&reset=1. Not  surprisingly, their setup is accessible and much less complicated.  Let’s hope they get enough support on both petitions for this important issue.