[Blindmath] Introduction

Tue Nov 3 23:17:24 UTC 2009

Hello,
I am going to add having a quick look at the link Andrew provided for 
the n-lab project, I notice that the link takes me to a page using 
instiki and the information at the bottom seems to indicate it is using 
MathML, good. Having a quick go with instiki on my own system the mathml 
produces good results for mathplayer and liblouisxml seems to be able to 
translate the xhtml which can be exported using the export link (I did 
notice some errors with liblouisxml, but I suspect its problems with 
liblouisxml as browsers don't show these to be problems).

Also its getting late so I might have made a mistake, but I seem to have 
this idea that instiki can also do some SVG stuff, can't remember 
exactly what it was for or how it would be used.

So at a quick glance it seems like the basics are correct, however may 
be others would like to look and give more comments.

Finally, while technically things might be accessible it still requires 
it to be used correctly. Moving away from the maths to explain this, we 
could use headings as an example. Those of us using screen readers have 
shortcut keys provided by the screen reader which allows us to jump 
through the structure of the document and one of those is to jump to 
next/previous heading. If you place headings in sensible places then 
this really can help with navigating a page. Also giving the headings 
the correct text helps as well, when I land on it after jumping to it I 
get told what it says and if labelled correctly I can easily decide 
whether that is what I want or whether to move on. All of this is up to 
the author and should mostly be common sense when you think about it.

Probably best now to wait for any specific questions you may have.

Michael Whapples
On 03/11/09 21:52, John Gardner wrote:
> 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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>
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