[Blindmath] Accessible LaTeX

Fri Nov 6 19:19:09 UTC 2009

No one's trying to impose anything on you. All I'm saying is that 
LaTeX is a complee solution for those of us who prefer independnece 
over a lifetime of dependency.

>I could not agree with this more.  My experience has been quite interesting
>as I lost my sight six years ago.  Now I am pursuing a degree in Computer
>Science and have not found one method which suits me well enough.  One
>method always has its drawbacks and I have found that I will require more
>options if I am to succeed.
>
>Teaching a man to fish is simple compared to teaching a man to do Math with
>LaTeX; when we put it in such simple  terms.  There is only one way to fish
>and that is with a fishing line.  If you say, "Teach a man to catch," then
>you are providing a lifetime of experiences that is filled with many
>methodologies and processes for success.      LaTeX is just one tool in the
>Tackel box, to continue with the fishing analogy.  The tackle box must not
>only contain the LaTeX methodology but must also contain other tools.  A
>fisherman cannot catch a fish with one lure   One lure will get him a
>particular type of fish in a specified location at a specified time.
>
>While my argument is extremely simplistic, it aims to illustrate that the
>one-for-all approach is not always best.
>
>Regards,
>Jose Tamayo
>
>
>
>
>
>i-----Original Message-----
>From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>Behalf Of Sina Bahram
>Sent: Friday, November 06, 2009 8:07 AM
>To: 'Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics';
>andrew.stacey at math.ntnu.no
>Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Accessible LaTeX
>
>The assumption that everyone who needs to consume math, also needs to
>produce it is not realistic, I fear.  Furthermore, there are different
>learning styles and preferences for the assimilation of information, and
>assuming that latex works for someone because it works for you or others is
>not fair to that individual.  I also believe that this preference or choice
>of format is independent of technical ability or intelligence.
>
>Personally I find latex distracting from the actual mathematics at hand, and
>yet I don't consider myself to be unintelligent, nor technically inept,
>considering I'm pursuing a PhD in exactly computer science.
>
>I think there's different strokes for different folks, as the saying goes,
>and it's almost a throw back to the old medical model of the 1980's to only
>present one possible solution, or treatment, to the problem.
>
>Take care,
>Sina
>
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>Behalf Of P. R. Stanley
>Sent: Friday, November 06, 2009 6:22 AM
>To: andrew.stacey at math.ntnu.no; Blind Math list for those interested in
>mathematics
>Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Accessible LaTeX
>
>Andrew
>you do not need to change anything. LaTeX source is just fine.
>I should expend my efforts on educating the readers on the benefits
>of LaTeX rather than trying to make it less complicated with the
>so-called solutions that are advertised on these lists.
>Blind people, most blind people, are smart enough to cope with a bit
>of complexity. ( smile)
>What was the famous quote from that economist, give a man a fish or
>teach him to fish? Teach a blind person to read and use LaTeX and
>you've set him up with a powerful tool for years to come.
>Paul
>
>
>
> >My second barrage of questions concerns the general issue of making
> >mathematical papers accessible.  I write my papers in LaTeX (naturally) and
> >have no intention of changing that.  I'm quite happy to publish it in
> >different forms, and I'm quite happy with hacking style files and messing
> >around with TeX primitives.  So what's my best strategy for making my
> >mathematics accessible?
> >
> >Reading back in your archives, there seem to be two formats that would be
> >reasonable: tagged PDF and XHTML+MathML.  I've tried using TeX4ht to
>convert
> >to MathML a couple of times and it didn't seem too hard, though I can't say
> >that I thought that the output looked very pretty!  I asked this in my
>barrage
> >of n-lab questions, but let me ask it again: if I add a stylesheet to make
>it
> >look nice, does that affect the accessibility?
> >
> > >From reading your archives, then getting pdfTeX to output tagged PDF is
> >a little way off as yet.  I'm quite happy doing a little pre-processing and
> >post-processing (so long as it can be automated) so is there any way that
> >I could modify the PDF to be tagged?  I'm afraid I know very little about
>what
> >tagged PDF is so can only speculate, but I'm thinking of something along
>the
> >lines of the DVI specials: redefine the mathematics environments to insert
> >specials which a later program converts to tags.  I'll wait to hear if
>that's
> >even feasible before speculating even further.
> >
> >When writing papers, are there any tidbits of advice which would make the
> >resulting paper easier to follow?
> >
> >I'd imagine that my webpages score low on accessibility.  For a start, the
> >layout is controlled by tables which, I dimly recall, are a Bad Thing.  Are
> >there any websites that explain how to design a website that's accessible?
> >
> >Thanks,
> >
> >Andrew Stacey
> >
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