[Blindmath] Mathematical document accessibility

Fri Mar 13 20:53:10 UTC 2009

John is absolutely correct in that PDF stil remains totally inaccessible.
However, you don't need to pay a penny for Infty reader. There is a 
free commandline version and if anyone needs it feel free to contact 
me offlist.
Regards
Paul
At 14:44 13/03/2009, you wrote:
>Theodor, unfortunately there is no way to extract any math structure from
>PDF, and my guess is that it will be a long cold day in hell before there
>will be.   So to extract the math, you need Infty Reader to do OCR.  It is
>expensive but it works well.
>
>John
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>Behalf Of Theodor Loots
>Sent: Friday, March 13, 2009 4:38 AM
>To: 'Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics'
>Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Mathematical document accessibility
>
>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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> >>
> >>
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