[Blindmath] Mathematical document accessibility

Fri Mar 13 17:55:57 UTC 2009

Hi Theodor,

PDF documents with mathematics are hopefully soon going to be accessible. This is because Design Science is developing a MathMl plugin for PDF documents that will be similar to MathPlayer.
For more information, see this post.
http://accessiblemath.dessci.com/2008/11/pdf-math-accessibility-continues-move-toward-iso-standardization.html

Regards

--- On Fri, 3/13/09, Theodor Loots <theo.loots at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Theodor Loots <theo.loots at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Mathematical document accessibility
> To: "'Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics'" <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
> Date: Friday, March 13, 2009, 5:07 PM
> Hi Michael,
> 
> The liblouis project is currently in the process of adding
> BAUK support, so
> I guess if you can contribute in any way, it will greatly
> be appreciated.
> 
> My greatest need concerning math documents is probably
> support for PDF's...
> This however, is wishful thinking I presume...
> 
> t
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org
> [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Michael Whapples
> Sent: 13 March 2009 11:01 AM
> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Mathematical document
> accessibility
> 
> First of all to say I would primarily be aiming for BAUK as
> that is what 
> I know. Please read the rest with that in mind.
> 
> Am I write in thinking that liblouis/liblouisxml still
> doesn't support 
> BAUK maths? I remember having a look at adding it some time
> ago but 
> either I didn't understand the table system of liblouis
> or it was just 
> not going to be able to support BAUK maths (either way I
> wasn't able to 
> do anything to it to get satisfactory results). As for
> connecting to 
> something like liblouisxml, as I primarily work on linux I
> might be 
> tempted to look at java's stuff for connecting with C++
> (I think JNI), 
> unless anyone else can tell me that com on linux is really
> easy to set up.
> 
> I have heard people mention UMCL but I haven't really
> seen any of its 
> work, how does that compare?
> 
> Michael Whapples
> On 13/03/09 05:45, Neil Soiffer wrote:
> > I'm not aware of Java-based MathML-to-Braille
> translators, but there is
> > liblious (C++, http://code.google.com/p/liblouis/) and
> UMCL (XSLT).  Both
> > have COM bindings that allow you to call them from
> other languages.
> > Essentially, that means you just need to give them the
> MathML and they
> give
> > you back a Braille translation.  I think that the COM
> part has only been
> > compiled for Windows, but COM is supported on the Mac
> and probably linux
> and
> > they probably would work there also:
> >
> http://unix.ittoolbox.com/documents/component-object-model-com-development-o
> n-mac-os-x-16688
> >
> > Neil Soiffer
> > Senior Scientist
> > Design Science, Inc.
> > www.dessci.com
> > ~ Makers of MathType, MathFlow, MathPlayer, MathDaisy,
> WebEQ, Equation
> > Editor ~
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 9:29 AM, Michael
> Whapples<mwhapples at aim.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >    
> >> Hello,
> >> After going quiet for a a bit I have decided as
> there's not much else
> going
> >> on for me I should get back to trying to work on
> my maths to Braille
> >> translator (BrlTex), except I've decided to
> take a look at things before
> >> diving back into it. In fact this may mean
> starting something new instead
> of
> >> trying to work on the old BrlTex ideas.
> >>
> >> The first question is where are things and what is
> actually needed? What
> is
> >> the state of mathml, accessibility of mathml, etc
> and is there still such
> a
> >> great need for LaTeX? I know also people new to
> LaTeX say it can be hard
> to
> >> get started with, so might a simpler authoring
> system be desireable (eg.
> >> RestructureText (RST) from the python docutils
> (http://docutils.sf.net))
> >> with may be an extension for math (may be using
> LaTeX inside a math
> >> directive, I think that should be possible).
> >>
> >> Currently for BrlTex I am using plasTeX
> (http://plastex.sf.net). This
> >> seems to work reasonably well for the LaTeX
> processing (I don't think I
> had
> >> any problems with it on well formed LaTeX files
> except for one which was
> >> pretty awful to read anyway and did fail even with
> one of the main LaTeX
> >> compilers (something like it worked with the latex
> command but not
> pdflatex
> >> or the other way round)). However I feel plasTeX
> will limit me to latex
> >> files unless I create an internal representation
> system for BrlTex which
> >> might get too much for me.
> >>
> >> The alternative, and why I asked about mathml, is
> that I now know java so
> >> wondered what TeX/LaTeX stuff is there for java
> and I stumbled over
> >> snuggletex (www.ph.ed.ac.uk/snuggletex) which is a
> LaTeX to mathml
> >> translation library. Now if I were to create a
> mathml Braille translator
> >> then I possibly get LaTeX support nearly for free
> by using snuggletex as
> an
> >> input filter. Any open source java based mathml
> Braille translators worth
> me
> >> looking at to save on my work? Also this design
> would permit dropping the
> >> intermediate (between LaTeX and Braille) as a
> MathML file. Also with the
> >> correct design then may be other outputs would be
> possible, eg. daisy
> book
> >> format, etc.
> >>
> >> Java is also tempting for other reasons, eg. swing
> and SWT for the GUI
> are
> >> cross platform compatible (I haven't found
> anything which really matches
> >> either of these in python), other standard
> interface systems such as web
> >> applications using J2EE (I know python can be used
> for web applications
> but
> >> I think it depends on what system you choose,
> there isn't a single
> obvious
> >> choice), etc.
> >>
> >> So any thoughts on the above or any other
> suggestions.
> >>
> >> Michael Whapples
> >>
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> m
> >>
> >>      
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