[Blindmath] Introduction

[John Gardner]

Hello Andrew.  This list fielded basically the same question just a few 
days ago.  My advice then was MathML, the math language of the future 
and accessible at least in Internet Explorer with MathPlayer.  And also 
accessible by translating the XML source in the free braille translator 
ap called liblouis.

You will hear from others about Latex, which is still very widely used, 
as you know.  It is possible to display math images with Latex ALT 
attributes, and in general these are accessible.  If one can read the 
text normally and only have equations in Latex, things read relatively 
easily.  Latex equations are almost obvious, and it's easy enough to 
look up the occasional symbol that isn't.  Still my strong advice is go 
for the future and use MathML.

You'll also need to make images accessible.  Use DAISY SVG! The big 
problem with both MathML and SVG is that Internet Explorer doesn't 
support them.  FireFox does, but IE and some others do not, so MathML 
and SVG still aren't that widely used.  There is an elegant way to be 
all things to all people, using MathML and SVG for clients that use them 
and images for those that don't.  I'm happy to discuss it with you, but 
it's probably beyond the tolerable limits of this list to discuss such 
details here.

FYI most people on this know that in addition to being Oregon State 
Emeritus faculty, I am founder of ViewPlus, which makes the cool 
software you need for some of these things.  Full disclosure.

John Gardner
Professor of Physics Emeritus
Oregon State U:niversity

On 11/3/2009 12:12 PM, Andrew Stacey wrote:
> Dear Blindmath Community,
>
> I've just joined your mailing list, and would like to bombard you with some
> questions, so thought I should introduce myself first.  I learnt about your
> list from Michael Whapples, via a comment on Terrence Tao's blog about
> displaying mathematics on the web (I believe that he has mentioned this
> discussion in a comment on this list before I joined).
>
> I am a mathematician, currently living in Norway.  I am particularly
> interested in using technology to make my (i.e. a mathematician's) job easier.
> One part of this is in using technology to improve our communication of
> mathematics, both to other mathematicians and to the wider community.  In
> particular, I am one of the team behind the n-lab project
> (http://ncatlab.org/nlab) which is a sort of "open lab book" for
> mathematicians (and a few others).
>
> This brings up the issue of accessibility.  In making our mathematics
> available, we need to think about how our audience will access it.  It's very
> easy to design a website that looks alright to me, but that's no guarantee
> that it will be accessible to all.  So I was pleased to learn of this list
> from Michael and would love to learn from you, in particular get some guidance
> on how best to make a website accessible to partially sighted and blind users.
>
> This issue has recently taken on a more personal note for me as none of my
> children have perfect vision.  I don't think that any would qualify as
> partially sighted: the one with the worst vision should still be able to drive
> a car when he's older, but it has made me think a little more about how much
> they will be able to use a computer, especially given how much an integral
> part of our lives computers now are.
>
> As I said, I shall shortly be bombarding you with questions - I hope you don't
> mind this - but thought it polite to provide a little background as to why I'm
> asking them first.
>
> Andrew Stacey
>
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