Google Accessibility Petition: Feedback Sought for Second Draft of Accompanying Cover Letter

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We are now asking for feedback on the second draft of the cover letter accompanying the Google Word Verification Accessibility Petition when it is sent to Dr. Eric Schmidt and Google’s Board of Directors. Please review the letter below, then send all constructive criticisms and suggestions to editor (at) blindaccessjournal.com. We look forward to your participation in this critical endeavor.

Over the past two decades, the Internet in general, and the World Wide Web in particular, have changed the lives of blind and visually impaired people for
the better. Many blind people around the world, through the use of synthesized speech and/or Braille output assistive technology, can now access
vast amounts of text-based and auditory information independently, like never before. Google’s main search engine page, with it’s rather accessible and
straight forward layout, is a primary gateway for many blind people to
effectively sift through, and thereby gain access to, the wealth of
information brought forth by this new empowering technological age. We in the blind community of Internet users, wholeheartedly thank Google for this; however, there is a considerable barrier looming in our midst, implemented
in a variety of Google’s newer services, which effectively denies independent access to the very information, resources, and online services that Google
has the potential to offer, to both blind and sighted users alike.

We all know that there are aspects of the Internet that impede its usefulness, including spam and the robots that seek to propagate it. The blind community
detests spam, too, and sympathizes with the need to do something about it. However, the graphical verification system introduced on some of
Google’s sites, which requires a user to visually read and correctly
interpret a picture, and to then enter the string of graphical
characters into a separate edit box, has, inadvertently, shut out
blind and visually impaired people from many Google services. As this is inconsistent with Google’s mission, I am certain you will want to deal with this problem
expeditiously.
I am writing to let you know that thousands of blind and sighted Internet users have signed the enclosed Google Word Verification Accessibility online petition.
We are kindly asking you to please follow Google’s mission statement, to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,”
by adding an accessible alternative to the visual word verification, also known as CAPTCHA, which is currently implemented on the web pages of Blogger,
GMail, and almost all other Google provided services.
Many of us in the blind community stand willing, ready, and able to assist your talented developers in devising and testing a workable solution, such as
those access alternatives already adopted and implemented by Pay Pal, Hotmail, Microsoft Passport, PR Web, and an increasing number of other prominent
services.

Not only can Google have the opportunity to expand its user-base by
making it’s websites fully accessible for blind and visually impaired
users, but doing so would also help Google further expand its
leadership in the search and advertising markets, as well as serving
as a catalyst to encourage more sites to open their market to this
often overlooked customer-base. Since Google is an acknowledged leader in providing an increasing number of services, adopting a solution to the access problem may be very useful
in gaining positive publicity for Google, and could serve as an outstanding example to the public, and to a wide audience of website owners and designers,
to bring increased awareness of this accessibility problem.
We, in the blind and the sighted communities alike, sincerely Thank you for your genuine consideration of this urgent matter, and we look forward to a prompt
affirmative response from you in the very near future.

CastBlaster Mike Asked to Make the Software Accessible to Blind Podcasters

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Dear Mike,

I am a blindcaster who has just downloaded a trial copy of CastBlaster. Unfortunately, I have encountered a number of critical factors that currently make this software impractical for use with our screen reading software. I and others in the blind community stand ready to assist you in making some minor modifications that would serve to allow blindcasters to use this important podcasting software. Most of podcasting is based on audio production, publishing and listening, all of which ought to remain inherently usable by the blind. Please respond to this note soon letting me know if you would be interested in working with blindcasters to insure the accessibility and usability of CastBlaster.

All the best,

Darrell Shandrow

Google’s Scripted Responses to the Concerns of the Blind

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During the time I was locked out of posting to Blind Access Journal, I wrote quite a number of messages to Google’s accounts-support@google.com and blogger-support@google.com e-mail addresses at different times. When the lock out was removed, I received five replies, all containing exactly the same scripted content shown below. Yes! I am relieved this particular matter has now been resolved and I am once again allowed to post to all of you, but, no, this level of service and lack of an accessible alternative cannot be accepted. We must all insist on positive change!

Hello,

Your blog has been reviewed, verified, and whitelisted so that it will no longer appear as potential spam. If you sign out of Blogger and sign back in again, you should be able to post as normal. Thanks for your patience, and we apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

Sincerely,

Blogger Support

New Experimental Redirected RSS Feeds

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In an effort to insure ultimate control over the RSS feeds for Blind Access Journal, I have set up a redirected URL that is based on the journal’s domain name. The journal’s RSS feed may now be reached through the URL https://blindaccessjournal.com/rss as well as the already publicized FeedBurner address. The new feed currently redirects to the FeedBurner address, but this may be changed at any time to meet the journal’s needs. Please adjust the subscription in your RSS reader, web based aggregator or podcatching software to point to this new feed and let me know if any issues are encountered. Similarly, the RSS feed for our Wedding Journal is available at http://shandrow.com/wedding. Please don’t forget to check out this feed, too. Enjoy.

Spammer Flag Removed – Look Out World!

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It appears that, after approximately 27 hours, the spam flag has finally been removed from Blind Access Journal. It appears this correction may have been made quietly as there have been no communications from Google as of approximately 11:45 AM MST. I am now able to post again. Look out world! Stay tuned for all the details very soon.

Update: It appears that Google staff resolved this matter at approximately 9:45 AM MST and sent numerous replies to my home e-mail address. One reply was later sent to work as well. All replies appeared to be scripted letters apologizing for the “inconvenience”, thanking me for my patience, and indicating that the spam flag had been removed.