[Blindmath] Can PDF math texts be accessed via screen reader?

[P. R. Stanley]

"  It's not cheap at $900, but it is the only game in town."

You do not have to pay $900 for infty reader. The commandline version 
of the infty reader is freely available and if anyone wants a copy 
feel free to email me offlist.
Paul
At 03:07 09/04/2009, you wrote:
>Hello Richard.  The Infty Reader can do OCR of PDF and is surprisingly good
>at getting both the math and text right.  It's not cheap at $900, but it is
>the only game in town.
>
>See
>http://www.inftyproject.org/
>Their ChattyInfty accessible math editor has a bit of a learning curve, but
>works well also.  Both these products are made by a university research team
>and do not have easy user-friendly interfaces.  But they do work.
>
>By the way, it is absolutely not true that you cannot access the graphs and
>diagrams.  Look at the ViewPlus IVEO Creator Pro package.  You'll need a
>ViewPlus embosser to make the tactile copy, but it also works well.  Lots of
>money for software and hardware, but at least today you have really full
>access to math and science.  Wasn't tru a couple of years ago.
>http://www.viewplus.com
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>Behalf Of Richard Dinger
>Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2009 5:05 PM
>To: BlindMath
>Subject: [Blindmath] Can PDF math texts be accessed via screen reader?
>
>Hello,
>
>Sorry, this is a bit long.
>
>I have spent most of my working career as a software engineer and recently I
>have been looking into neural networks and linear classifiers.  That led to
>support vector machines and compact vector machines, which leads to linear
>algebra in general.  So my initial interest/question for this group was
>where can I find an accessible text on undergraduate level linear algebra?
>
>I took linear algebra 40 years ago at the University of Washington, but
>recall very little of that course.  But then that question led to what may
>be a broader question for this group, namely, what are some solid approaches
>to accessing mathematics texts in PDF via computer screen reader.  I mention
>PDF texts as I see many of them offered while googling topics.
>
>When I say access I mean access to both the written text and at least some
>access to any equations.  I understand that graphs and diagrams will not be
>accessible, but can usually be infered from the text.
>
>I would be completely happy if equations were in some markup language like
>La Tex as that can eventually be understood.
>
>Are there any commercial products that can convert text and equations to
>some other format such as word?
>
>Finally, is pursuing PDF a fools errand?
>
>I will post on a different thread regarding La Tex.
>
>Richard
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