[Blindmath] Speech text for powers and superscripts

[Neil Soiffer]

Some ideas that have been used:

ASTER and others:  change the pitch (up for superscripts, down for
subscripts) or some other recognizable quality of the voice

Nemeth:  announce the level of the script  (eg, x "super i + j").  You
say the level of the script whenever there is a change in level so
that if something follows it, you say that ("baseline" for neutral).
For example "x super i plus j baseline plus y" or for nested scripts
"x super i super super j super plus 1 baseline plus 2" for x^ { i^j+1}
}+ 2.

Various sounds and musical notes have been tried (eg, a rising sound
and a falling sound).

At least in the US, "quantity" is often used as as grouping word,
perhaps followed by a very long pause at the end of the quantity or by
the words "end quantity".  However, I've found that the words chosen
for grouping is perhaps the most controversial set of words you can
use and no one solution that I've tried has made everyone (or anywhere
near everyone) happy.

Neil Soiffer
Senior Scientist
Design Science, Inc.
www.dessci.com
~ Makers of MathType, MathFlow, MathPlayer, MathDaisy, Equation Editor ~


On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 6:48 AM, J.Fine <j.fine at open.ac.uk> wrote:
> Hi
>
> Here are some examples of speech text for powers.  This post is mainly for the record, but if you're interested read on and comment. Just to remind you, this is for students of S151 "Mathematics for Science" at the Open University.  The course has powers, logarithms, trig and an introduction to differentiation.
>
> In what follows x can stand for pretty much anything, such as "open a plus b close".
>
> Here are simple examples of powers
>
> x squared
> x cubed
> x to the 4
> x to the minus 1
>
> I find complicated and non-numerical exponents (or superscripts) difficult.  A classic example in TeX notation is "x^{i + j}"  versus "x^i + j".
>
> Here's an idea. Following the TeX notation we introduce group and end group for left and right braces.  (I know group is already a mathematical concept, but as a word it very rarely occurs in a formula, so perhaps this will be OK.)  Don't think of the sequences of characters for begin and end group as hard-coded.
>
> When we do this we can say
>
> x super i plus j
> x super group i plus j end group
>
> Now suppose we have a complicated superscript that is already grouped, such as "(i + j)".  In that case the groups can usefully be dropped and so we might allow both
>
> x super open i plus j close
> x super group open i plus j end group close
>
> If you're still here I'd welcome your comments.
>
>
> Jonathan
>
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>
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