[Blindmath] Math ML and JFW

[Stephen L Noble]

One important aspect I would point out is that the limitations in how assistive technology handles MathML is not a limitation with MathML itself, but rather is because assistive technology vendors do not understand that mathematics access is an important issue. The key to changing the status quo is for consumers to send email or make phone calls to the technology vendor and tell them that this is a priority.  Otherwise, they won't care.  I had one major screen reader vendor tell me that they have never heard from a single consumer who was using MathML and wanted to use mathematics braille with their refreshable braille output, so therefore they were not going to bother.  So, the lesson here is let your needs be known directly to the vendor.

Best regards,

--Steve Noble
steve.noble at louisville.edu 
502-969-3088  

>>> Michael Whapples <mwhapples at aim.com> 2/17/2010 3:57 AM >>>
Hello,
Probably the main one you know of is using the mathplayer plugin for 
internet explorer. This will make JFW speak the maths out. There are a 
few limitations of mathplayer, it passes the maths as a string of words 
so its not easy to navigate a equation (eg. the symbol alpha would be 
written out as the word alpha, the divided by symbol would be the words 
"divided by", etc) and screen readers won't produce Braille output for 
the maths (well it will show the words spoken but not the correct maths 
Braille code). These limitations would need work from screen readers to 
be overcome, so if you would like better math support let them know its 
important to you.

For Braille, you may do best downloading the page and using liblouisxml 
to create a brf file. I seem to have a feeling that someone said 
mathplayer may be able to put it through liblouisxml for you but I don't 
remember seeing such an option myself.

Another option might be to import the mathml into an accessible maths 
editor and read it in that.

I think that covers the main options. I think software actually making 
use of mathml is one of the limitations of mathml, there are big gaps 
particularly with accessibility (eg. firefox supports mathml but doesn't 
provide accessible information to screen readers for the maths, etc).

Michael Whapples
On 02/17/2010 04:56 AM, Sarah Jevnikar wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I've recently discovered a fantastic math website, found at the following
> URL:
>
>
> http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/ 
>
> The trouble is, it uses Math CL and so it must bed to me for me to have
> access to the math equations. I'm using JAWS 11 and Internet Explorer 8. Is
> there any way of making this Math ML accessible? I've heard of several
> options but I'd like to hear from someone who uses these products and knows
> what they're capable of.
>
> Thank you very much,
>
> Sarah Jevnikar
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