[Blindmath] Mathematical document accessibility

[Jason White]

Michael Whapples <mwhapples at aim.com> wrote:
>
> * MathML is very verbose, you would never want to work with the actual  
> code itself when creating or reading a document. LaTeX is much better in  
> that respect.
[other excellent points omitted for brevity]

This is a serious disadvantage. If I run itex2mml (a TeX to MathML converter)
and type in the TeX code for the quadratic formula, I get:
$x= \frac{-b \pm \sqrt{b^2-4ac}}{2a}$
<math xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML'
display='inline'><mi>x</mi><mo>=</mo><mfrac><mrow><mo
lspace="verythinmathspace"
rspace="0em">−</mo><mi>b</mi><mo>±</mo><msqrt><mrow><msup><mi>b</mi>
<mn>2 </mn></msup><mo>−</mo><mn>4
</mn><mi>ac</mi></mrow></msqrt></mrow><mrow><mn>2
</mn><mi>a</mi></mrow></mfrac></math>

Now compare the TeX version on the first line with the MathML version starting
on the second line, and consider which you would prefer to read or edit.

To generate MathML, you either have to convert it from another format such as
TeX, or you are forced to use a wysiwyg editor. Since the second option raises
accessibility problems of its own so far as mathematics is concerned, this
leaves the first option, which involves writing in TeX/LaTeX anyway, so we're
back where we started.

I should add that I don't favour wysiwyg editors. After having learned Emacs
and Vi, it becomes obvious how painfully inefficient the editors provided by
typical word processors are, even the ones with good keyboard support such as
WordPerfect 5.1 and 6.0, which is what I was using before moving full-time to
Linux.