CAPTCHA Hurts Blind Chinese Activist

Howdy Accessibility Comrades!

I’m so mad I could fight a circle saw, as we say here in Texas.  For quite some time, I’ve been agitating to free a blind activist in China, Chen Guangcheng.  He was imprisoned for exposing forced abortions by local officials in China on trumped up charges of running a criminal gang that damaged government property and delayed traffic.  I’m not kidding.  As you may know, China has a “one child” policy, a policy to discourage families from adding to an already overcrowded population.  While the policy may be good for China, sports heroes, popular entertainers and even some government officials often violate the official policy and suffer no consequences or pay a modest fine.  When ordinary, poor Chinese women violate the policy, local officials resort to persecution, even forcing them to have abortions or sterilizations.  Chen Guangcheng sought to expose this injustice, and he rots in jail for daring to challenge these serious human rights violations.  Recently, a Human Rights organization has started a petition to pressure the National government of China to free Chen Guangcheng.  I applaud their efforts.  What makes me so angry is that there’s a CAPTCHA that one must solve in order to sign the petition.  Consequently blind supporters of Chen Guangcheng can’t help him by signing the petition without sighted help.  I seek your advice on what to do.  Should I attempt to start a separate petition, one that blind people can sign without a CAPTCHA?  Should I ask the International Rights group to change their petition?  This CAPTCHA hurts both Chen Guangcheng and his blind friends around the world.  I have provided a link below to the current petition.  I urge those of you who can manage to do so to sign it.  In the meantime, I will explore other ways to help free Chen Guangcheng.

Regards,

Chairman Mal

Power to the Peeps!