On the other hand, before you sign, know that the creator of this petition is
1. acting alone
2. has a history of writing abrasive (some would go further in the
description) to companies
3. wants to work by himself and not in conjunction with other consumer
driven organizations (AFB, ACB, NFB) has been sarcastic about them and has
not (and stubbornly refuses to) release the letter he plans to send to
goggle with will accompany your petition with your name on it. The idea
itself is a good one but his attitutde is not one I want to sign on
to. Just a thought.
E. At 06:22 PM 1/16/2006, you wrote:

I don't usually forward off toppic messages to the list, but this one seems as though it would be of some importance to many people on this list. At first i didn't know what the message was about, but now I know. This is a request to sign the <http://petitiononline.com/captcha/>Google Word Verification Accessibility petition, which requests google to provide an alternative to the varification method of reading the letters off a graphic and retyping them to show you are a human. Obviously this isn't required to search using google, but it will be required for other services. Even if you don't intend to use other google services I would encourage you to sign the petition because it sends the message that this practice is unacceptable and should be avoided or an alternative should be provided. If an alternative is provided by most sites it will establish a standard and put more pressure on future page designers to make their services accessible. It also only takes a minute of your time to sign the petition.
I don't appreciate being designated a non-human just because I can't see a graphic. :-)
Sorry about this message being in HTML, but the links in the forward work better in an HTML message. So if you have a problem let me know.
Sarah Van Oosterwijck Assistive Technology Trainer <http://home.earthlink.net/~netentity>http://home.earthlink.net/~netentity
----- Original Message ----- From: <mailto:noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>FreedomBox Announcements To: <mailto:netentity@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>netentity@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Monday, January 16, 2006 11:43 AM Subject: A FreedomBox Call to Action
Dear FreedomBox community member:
For years, we've been talking about the power of the FreedomBox Network to give the blind community a voice. We've dreamed of the difference we could make with product and service providers if hundreds, thousands, or even a few million of us united to make our needs known. So far, it has been only a dream.
Now, we have a chance to take action! The <http://blindaccessjournal.com/>Blind Access Journal has created the <http://petitiononline.com/captcha/>Google Word Verification Accessibility petition. The text of this brief petition follows:
We, the undersigned, ask Google Inc. to "do no evil" and follow their mission statement to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful" by promptly adding accessibility to their visual word verification scheme so that the blind and visually impaired are allowed to fully participate in all products and services offered by the company on terms of equality with our sighted peers.
<http://new.petitiononline.com/captcha/petition-sign.html>Please sign this petition now!
It will only take you a minute to sign this petition, and you only need to provide your name and email address. You may even keep your email address private if you wish. It doesn't matter if you're currently a FreedomBox user; it doesn't even matter if you're blind. If you care about the blind community's access to information and services, please sign this petition! Please also spread the word about this petition as much as you can!
Thank you in advance, The FreedomBox team
---------- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.375 / Virus Database: 267.14.19/231 - Release Date: 1/16/2006
To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.
