[Blindmath] questions about LaTeX and accessibility for blind people

[Joseph C. Lininger]

Hi Trevor,
The equation problem I described wasn't just when using pdflatex. It happens 
if I convert from LaTeX to anything. PDF in general has various access 
problems in my experience, so it's not the format I prefer when I have a 
choice. Of course, I don't always. But anyway, yeah. The accessibility 
problems with equations come up whether it's html, rtf, or pdf that I'm 
converting to.
Joe

Trevor Saunders writes:

> HI,
> 
> Personally I like latex a lot for writing documents.
> 
> so far as equations in pdf go, afaik nobody has a clear idea how to make
> them accessible, so its hard for pdflatex to create accessible
> equations.  However is there is a way you could consider providing a
> patch to the maintainers of pdflatex.
> 
> I think I've seen the one word per line issue you decribe, however I've
> also noticed that pdftotext run on a pdf made from latex suffers a
> little from the ligatures, but doesn't have the one word per line thing,
> I don't know what the issue there is.
> 
> personally I feel like providing source is generally useful, and for
> know a pretty good way to get around the accessibility issues.
> 
> Trev
> 
> On Wed, Aug 04, 2010 at 04:47:19AM -0600, Joseph C. Lininger wrote:
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>> Hi all,
>> I originally posted some questions about LaTeX on the NABS and NFBCS
>> mailing lists. Someone recommended I try asking my questions here. So,
>> here's a copy of my original post to those lists.
>> 
>> Good evening folks,
>> The subject says it all. I'm exploring the use of the LaTeX typesetting
>> system. I can use it to generate math equations and the like, but if i
>> do so it's not accessible once I generate the final product. That's fine
>> as far as writing goes, since I have the source I know what it says.
>> However, I'd rather not contribute to the problems we already face where
>> blindness and access to this sort of information is concerned. So, can
>> anyone provide me with information on formatting these types of
>> documents so they're accessible? Can it even be done? Even making it so
>> the LaTeX source appears for the blind where the equations would go for
>> the sighted would be a good thing.
>> 
>> Also, I've noticed that when using pdflatex from the texlive-latex
>> package under Linux, the resulting document appears to have one word per
>> line when read by Window-Eyes and adobe Acrobat. I can tell you visually
>> that it appears correctly on screen though. I see this as another
>> potential access problem. Any clue how to fix that? Using latex2rtf and
>> hevea for generating rtf and html result in documents that don't have
>> this property and can be read just fine, save for the problems with
>> equations which I've already discussed.
>> 
>> If I had to, I could always provide LaTeX source along side what ever
>> other formats I offer for my own work. However, in the case of
>> publishing and that it may not always be an option to do so. So I'm
>> exploring my options. LaTeX is one that math and computer scientists
>> seem to use heavily, so that's the obvious choice if I can make it work.
>> - - --
>> They say god has always been. Linux and I will now disprove that:
>> $ ar m God
>> ar: creating God
>> There you have it. God was created by the ar program. Good news is, God
>> really does exist!
>> Joseph C. Lininger <jbahm at pcdesk.net>
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> 
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