[Blindmath] mathplayer, jaws, and math in graphics?

[Andrew Stacey]

On Sun, Apr 03, 2011 at 11:34:39AM -0700, Roopakshi Pathania wrote:
> 
> Hi Prof. Stacey,

Thanks for the promotion.  Actually, I'm only a Dr.

I'm not quite sure how to take your email.  Still, I'll have a go.

> 1. The first expression you wrote is actually ASCII text, and not LaTeX...

My apologies.  I should have written:

\documentclass{article}\begin{document}\(x^2 + y^2 = z^2\)\end{document}

which would have been much clearer.

> 2. Do you want me to decode your second expression? Of course it is quite a simple example as you yourself stated.

For each example that you can decode, I can provide another even more
complicated example (and one that I've actually used in an article).  But the
point is not that there'll always be someone who can decode it, but that the
more complicated it gets then the fewer people will be able to do so.
A mathematical expression is hard enough to understand that putting extra
barriers in place is not a good idea.

> 3. You are right that a serious LaTeX paper or article can be hard to study. But then I skip initial code for the very same reason.
> Still, macros are present even in the main part of the article, so... yes.

I've heard that Donald Knuth says that on first reading, people mentally
replace all mathematical expressions with "blah" and only go back and fill in
the blanks afterwards.

I'll admit that I'm blurring the line slightly between a small extract in
a larger webpage and a whole document.

> 4. This is also why OCR application InftyReader has a special format in which only math is represented in LaTeX.
> And yes, most of the websites have LaTeX in alt tags alone, so this makes life much simpler.
> 
> When it comes to accessible math available on the web and in ebooks, there  aren't many choices.
> So the lines blur between the real uses of LaTeX and MathML for a screen reader user.

Maybe I can make my point a little differently.  I am a sighted mathematician.
If I came across a website that presented its mathematics as raw LaTeX code
then I would not use that website.  I would consider it second rate, and not
a serious mathematical website.  If I think like that, why should you think
otherwise?

Now I realise that there is a distinction between pragmatism and idealism, and
that pragmatically it may be a good idea to learn a few basic LaTeX symbols.
But at the same time, you should protest loudly and explain that raw LaTeX is
not an accessible way to present mathematics.

Andrew