[Blindmath] Wanted: Examples of good articulation of mathematical expressions

[Birkir R. Gunnarsson]

Hi

This is not directly related to MathML, but you mentioned graphs in your post.
Are you aware of the NCAM guidelines for describing charts and graphs:
http://www.altformat.org/index.asp?pid=406&ipname=US
(this is not the actual NCAM page but the first Google hit and there
is a link to the NCAM page and research from there).
I think flexible speech rules are the future for spoken math. I
believe users who have a Nemeth or UEB background may want speech
patterns that follow the same structure as those braille systems.
Users who are not totally blind and can see the screen (Dyslexic users
for instance) may want much less verbosity, as they can follow the
math on the screen, same with math produce with refreshable braille
and speech simultaneously (not possible right now, but that seems to
be about to change with MathPlayer version 3, according to a recent
post from Neil at Design Science to this list, and he's got a few
tricks up his sleeve). :)
Otherwise, I believe our resident Indian expert has given you all the
resources I am aware of.
Thanks and good luck, keep us posted on your progress.
-Birkir

On 4/14/11, Roopakshi Pathania <r_akshi_tgk at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Jonathan,
>
> As some one who depends entirely on math content delivered via text to
> speech for her reading, I'll be glad to give you my input (As soon as I'm
> free from certain obligations).
> I don't have time to go into a lot of the stuff right now, but want to point
> out a few things.
>
> 1. I think that rules for pronouncing MathML rendered through MathPlayer are
> based on MathSpeak.
> 2. The spoken MathML is not very efficient for a power user, or some one who
> has to deal with complicated equations on regular basis (Integration for
> example).
> 3. You cannot use AsTR developed by T.V. Raman to listen to math output
> unless you have access to a hardware speech synthesizer. At least that was
> the case when I last saw that project several months ago.
> 4. You might also like to look at LaTeX math expressions spoken out by a
> screen reader. Some of the ways in which LaTeX expressions are written
> translate efficiently into speech. This is particularly true of fractions.
> Note that I'm only talking about math as it is represented in LaTeX and not
> anything else. We've had holy wars over this issue in the passed.
> 5. Also google for other research projects addressing the same concern as
> yours.
>
> Regards
> Roopakshi from India
> Sent from my Lenovo ThinkPad
>
> --- On Thu, 4/14/11, J.Fine <j.fine at open.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> From: J.Fine <j.fine at open.ac.uk>
> Subject: [Blindmath] Wanted: Examples of good articulation of mathematical
> expressions
> To: "'Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics'"
> <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
> Date: Thursday, April 14, 2011, 7:39 PM
>
> Hi
>
> I'd like your help. My employer, the Open University, has asked me to write
> a specification for translation of MathML to speech text.  Please don't get
> your hopes up too high, because they want it by the end of the month and so
> it won't be comprehensive.  And there's no guarantee that software will be
> written that meets this specification.
>
> In 1995 Abraham Nemeth wrote "No standard protocol exists for articulating
> mathematical expressions as it does for articulating the words of an English
> sentence."  I thing this sums up the problem beautifully.
>
> I'd like help with what the outputs should be, particularly from those of
> you who screen read mathematics.  I've done some background reading and know
> of  Nemeth's MathSpeak, the Unified English Braille (UEB) "Guidelines for
> Technical Material", the output produced by Design Science's MathPlayer, and
> the work of T.V. Raman.  (Raman's software I've not yet installed on my
> computer.)
>
> The context I'm working with is our course S151 "Mathematics for Science",
> which starts with numbers and powers, goes though graphs, angles, trig and
> logarithms, and then two chapters on probability and statistics, and finally
> a chapter that introduces differentiation.  I'd like the outputs to be right
> for that course, and correspond to what a human reader might say.
>
> And so, for example, Pythagoras theorem should be "a squared plus b squared
> equals c squared".  In another post to this list I will give you some
> examples I have, invite comments, and ask for more examples.  I know that
> this does not conform to MathSpeak, but I think it's what's best for S151
> students.
>
> Best regards
>
>
> Jonathan
>
> --
> The Open University is incorporated by Royal Charter (RC 000391), an exempt
> charity in England & Wales and a charity registered in Scotland (SC 038302).
>
>
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