[Blindmath] accessible math websites

Mon Mar 16 20:28:50 UTC 2009

Well then maybe you should learn your LaTeX before attempting to be 
creative with it.
If there ever was a case of the workman blaming the tool or whatever 
the expression is. _smile*

By the way, the compiled document is no longer LaTeX. It's PDF or DVI 
or whatever format you choose but not LaTeX.
Paul
At 10:38 16/03/2009, you wrote:
>"LaTeX is the only 100% accessible typesetting tool for the blind"
>Really? I feel that needs questioning from both directions. I am 
>sure there probably are other tools just as accessible as LaTeX but 
>LaTeX is by far the most popular one which is useable. The other 
>side is whether LaTeX is really 100% accessible, well the source 
>code might be but the compiled document isn't. I remember when I 
>wanted to achieve a very specific formatting I found it hard to get 
>an output where I could independently confirm the output was 
>actually formatted as I needed. As I remember I had to resort to 
>asking a sighted person to check the formatting for me and it took a 
>few attempts at the source code to actually get exactly what I 
>needed. May be these cases are rare, but so long as a single case 
>exists then a 100% accessibility claim is an exageration.
>
>Michael Whapples
>On 16/03/09 06:34, P. R. Stanley wrote:
>>I wasn't refering to you personally. It was you as in general.
>>as I have already explained, wysewyg was invented to serve people 
>>like you i.e. the sighted. LaTeX by some fortunate accident 
>>happened to be just the thing we blind folks need in order to 
>>ensure that the document looks as presentable as possible.
>>Difficult or not LaTeX is the only 100% accessible typesetting tool 
>>for the blind and you cannot and will not be able to change and I'm 
>>not going to sit quietly while some half baked idea gets promoted 
>>solely as to make money for a handful of opportunists!
>>and before you get excited, no, I am not alluding to you.
>>Paul
>>
>>
>>At 05:33 16/03/2009, you wrote:
>>>FYI: I know TeX reasonably well. I wrote my thesis in it and many papers
>>>in it, but I don't use it anymore (mostly) because I hate the write,
>>>"compile", fix, "compile", fix, etc., loop that WYSIWYG eliminates. I do
>>>advocate that people going into math or physics and a few other sciences
>>>learn it because many of their colleagues will use it and you will see it
>>>and need to correspond with them using it. Knowing it doesn't mean using it
>>>though.
>>>
>>>The point about actuarial notation is that it is not as straightforward in
>>>TeX as a fraction or superscript is. As you can see, the "angle" part is
>>>split among the overline and the |, and those constructs break apart the
>>>operands in a semantically unnatural way, making comprehension harder. If
>>>one were using real TeX, you'd write a macro to do this and it would be more
>>>understandable, but the TeX variant used by Wikipedia (texvc) and most other
>>>web-oriented systems is not extensible and only support a very limited
>>>subset of TeX.
>>>
>>>
>>>Neil Soiffer
>>>Senior Scientist
>>>Design Science, Inc.
>>>www.dessci.com
>>>~ Makers of MathType, MathFlow, MathPlayer, MathDaisy, WebEQ, Equation
>>>Editor ~
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>On Sun, Mar 15, 2009 at 6:38 PM, P. R. Stanley 
>>><prstanley at ntlworld.com>wrote:
>>>
>>> > I'm sorry, Neil, what is the point you're making? You may not 
>>> understand it
>>> > straightaway but with a little bit of work and patience you can 
>>> get to know
>>> > the system. The benenfits of LaTeX which have been highlighted 
>>> on this list
>>> > on many occasions surely must make it worth the effort.
>>> > Cheers
>>> > Paul
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > At 00:31 16/03/2009, you wrote:
>>> >
>>> >> If you are willing to deal with TeX, take a look at Wikipedia. 
>>> The images
>>> >> use TeX as the alt text. Unfortunately, TeX is pretty cryptic for
>>> >> actuarial
>>> >> notations. For example, "a angle n i" is represented as
>>> >> "a_{\overline{n|}i}" Take a look at
>>> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actuarial_notation
>>> >> and see if it is understandable.
>>> >>
>>> >> For more basic concepts (such as Algebra I and II), there are sites such
>>> >> as
>>> >> www.onemathematicalcat.org that use MathML and are accessible via
>>> >> MathPlayer
>>> >> with JAWS.
>>> >>
>>> >> Neil Soiffer
>>> >> Senior Scientist
>>> >> Design Science, Inc.
>>> >> www.dessci.com
>>> >> ~ Makers of MathType, MathFlow, MathPlayer, MathDaisy, WebEQ, Equation
>>> >> Editor ~
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >> On Sun, Mar 15, 2009 at 1:39 PM, <sarah.jevnikar at utoronto.ca> wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >> > Hi all,
>>> >> > Every so often, I find my math text inadequately explains a topic, and
>>> >> so I
>>> >> > wish to look it up online. However I find many math websites have
>>> >> equations
>>> >> > as images that JAWS won't read. Are there any sites you know of which
>>> >> > explain mathematical concepts that are JAWS-friendly?
>>> >> > Thank you for your help,
>>> >> > Sarah Jevnikar
>>> >> >
>>> >> >
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>>> >
>>> >
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>>
>>
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>
>
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