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

[Louis Maher]

Hello,

Your only hope with math in pdf is an optical character recognition
approach.  (www.inftyproject.org).

I have heard that there is a markup language in pdf, but it is not used.

Regards
Louis Maher


-----Original Message-----
From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Richard Dinger
Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2009 7:05 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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