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

[John Gardner]

Hello All.  With Dr. Stacy's permission, I have abstracted this insight
about Latex and MathML roles into a short note on http://Access2Science.com
Inspired by the string of questions today, I have also written up another
QuickNote - on choices for accessible authoring of math.  Hope these procide
useful insights.

But these still don't answer all the questions that are appearing.  So let
me say just a few more words.  First of all, MathPlayer is not written for
blind people.  It is aplug-in that makes Internet Explorer display MathML.
Until recently it was not possible for authors to use MathML and expect
everybody to view it, because IE and possibly other web browsers just didn't
show it without special plug-ins.  Which of course not everybody has.
MathPlayer was made accessible by the nice people at Design Science, and it
is still the only way to get access to MathML in general.  

Note that MathJAX is now being used to display MathML in any web browsers,
so the use of MathML is increasing rapidly.  However MathJAX presently
doesn't make math accessible, but maybe it will someday soon, so that you'll
be able to read math in any web browser.

Second note.  ChattyInfty does indeed provide a Latex dump, but it has a
very nice speech math output too.

-----Original Message-----
From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Andrew Stacey
Sent: Sunday, April 03, 2011 11:09 AM
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] mathplayer, jaws, and math in graphics?

There seems to be some confusion regarding LaTeX and MathML here.  I'd like
to
help straighten that out, if I may.  The confusion is with regarding their
roles.

LaTeX is an input format.  It is how we mathematicians write our articles,
books, webpages, and anything else where mathematics is involved.  (And
often
anything where mathematics isn't involved.  I use LaTeX to design my
children's birthday invitations.)  It is not designed to be read as-is.  It
is
intended to be processed into a suitable output format and then read.  If
anyone thinks that they can read LaTeX and understand what is going on, then
I have a few documents I can post samples from which will soon disabuse you
of
that notion.  Of course, very simple LaTeX can be read.  Something like x^2
+ y^2 = z^2 is fairly easy to understand, but try something more complicated
like \sum_{m = 2 \over m \text{prime}}^{\infty} \frac{1}{m^s} and you'll see
what I mean.  And that's fairly simple compared to what can be written.
When
you realise that LaTeX (or rather, TeX) is completely programmable, then
you'll see that you can find absolutely anything in a LaTeX document.

MathML is an output format.  It is not designed to be written directly, but
it
is designed to be read.  Of course, one needs a suitable renderer: a browser
for the sighted and something like MathPlayer for those who want their
mathematics read, but then the same is true of any output format.  As it is
an
open standard, it is a reasonable task to design a program to render MathML
in
to any desired medium.

It is possible, though not always straightforward, to convert LaTeX to
MathML.
One reason why it is not always straightforward is that TeX (the program
underlying LaTeX) often needs to know things about its output.  When run
normally, TeX has complete control over the process and so can know exactly
how the output will be seen.  When producing MathML (or XHTML), it can't
know
exactly how the output will be seen.  But those are technical difficulties
that can usually be avoided.  The main difficulty is that most websites
don't
bother with this route.  They convert the LaTeX mathematics to a graphic
which
is then displayed, with the original LaTeX as the alt text.  Because of how
it
is produced, the LaTeX is usually very simple (no complicated macros), and
so
it may be possible to get by with reading the alt text.

So if you want to read mathematics, look for MathML.  If you want to write
mathematics, learn LaTeX (or another TeX variant).

Andrew Stacey

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