A court in Beijing's Haidian district earlier this month accepted the lawsuit¹ of a visually impaired² man who was suing China Railway Corp, asking for compensation and upgrades to the official train ticket website 12306.cn to make it easier for people like him to buy tickets online.

北京市海淀区一法院本月初接收到一位视力障碍人士起诉中国铁路总公司的诉讼请求，要求铁路总公司为其图形验证给视力障碍人群造成的不便给予赔偿并更新其验证系统。

The man, who asked to be identified only as Chen, said he brought the lawsuit on Jan 25, and the court accepted the case a couple of days before Spring Festival.

这位起诉人姓陈，在1月25日就提交了其诉讼申请，法院在春节前几天才接收诉讼。

Because the website only provides graphic³ verification codes, which screen-reading software cannot interpret, Chen said he was unable to buy a ticket online at the end of last year during the Spring Festival travel rush and had to ask for a day's leave and spend 110 yuan on taxi fees to buy a ticket at Beijing West Railway Station.

因为12306网站只提供图片验证码，而陈先生这样的视力障碍者使用的读屏软件不能读取图片，导致陈先生去年年底无法在网上买票，所以只能请假一天，花了110元的打车费去火车站排队买票。

"I called the website' shotline many times and wrote a letter to the company about the problem but received no feedback from them, so I decided⁴ to sue," Chen said in a telephone interview. "Now the Spring Festival holiday is over. I am waiting to be called to court."

“我曾经无数次拨打过订票网站的热线电话反映这个问题，但是却没有收到任何回复，所以我决定起诉，”陈先生在一次电话采访中说道，“现在春节假期已经过去了，我在等待开庭审理案件。”

The railway company has not issued a statement about the lawsuit.

但是铁路公司目前并没有对此案件给予声明。

Chen, a visually impaired masseur in Beijing, said he can operate computers and smartphones proficiently⁵ with the help of screen-reading software. But buying a ticket to his hometown in Gansu province became impossible ever since 12306.cn upgraded its verification codes in 2015 from a combination of numerals and letters to the current photo matching model.

陈先生在北京从事盲人按摩工作，他表示借助读屏软件可以自如地操作电脑和智能手机。但是自从2015年12306网站系统验证改为数字和图片搭配结合的形式后，他就不能在网上购买到回甘肃老家的火车票。

"Buying train tickets during the festival travel rush is hard enough, and even harder for people like me," he said.

“春运期间抢车票本就是件难事，可是对于我们这样的视障人群更是难上加难，”陈先生说。