[Blindmath] MathPlayer 3 (Preview Release 1) is now available

Sat Dec 3 00:08:12 UTC 2011

Steve answered your question much better than I could.  Thanks Steve!

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

On Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 10:52 AM, <bente at casilenc.com> wrote:

> Thanks Steve! You Rock!!
>
> Bente
> Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Noble,Stephen L." <steve.noble at louisville.edu>
> Sender: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org
> Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2011 17:22:46
> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics<
> blindmath at nfbnet.org>
> Reply-To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
>        <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] MathPlayer 3 (Preview Release 1) is now available
>
> Concerning Blackboard and accessible math, here are my observations on
> what is currently possible based on my own experimentation. Blackboard
> functions as a shell overlay on top of the content it is rendering. There
> are ways of getting accessible math into Blackboard, but they may not be
> apparent to the average professor who doesn't know that much about
> accessibility.
>
> 1) MathML can be copied into Blackboard's internal editor (or even hand
> coded), but when this content gets loaded by the system, it gets rendered
> by Blackboard's system shell though the WebEQ display engine. Although that
> looks fine to a sighted user, the end result is not accessible--even though
> MathML was used internally. So that route won't work.
>
> 2) A route that *will* work under the right circumstances is to create a
> web page with MathML content with some other editing tool (I commonly use
> MathType) and then upload that page to Blackboard. However, there are some
> important caveats.
> * If the desire is to have these math pages open within the Blackboard
> environment, then the instructor will probably have to save the page in two
> different formats: both HTML and XHTML.
> * If the page is only saved as HTML with MathML islands, it will only work
> with IE plus MathPlayer. That's fine for accessibility, but students who
> use Firefox, for instance, won't get the page displayed properly.
> * Although XHTML+MathML will be fine for users who don't need
> accessibility and are using Mozilla-based browsers like Firefox, there's
> something about the Blackboard shell that won't let MathPlayer support
> XHTML files for IE users.
> * Therefore, each page with math must be saved in both formats if the
> desire is to support both IE and Mozilla users and have the pages open up
> within the Blackboard environment. The only other option is to simply
> upload all the pages only in XHTML, and instruct students to simply
> download the files onto their PC and use them outside of the Blackboard
> environment.
>
> Hope that helps.
>
> --Steve Noble
> steve.noble at louisville.edu
> 502-969-3088
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org]
> On Behalf Of Bente Casile
> Sent: Friday, December 02, 2011 9:38 AM
> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] MathPlayer 3 (Preview Release 1) is now available
>
> Neil,
>
>  This is a question for you, but I am putting it out here because others
> may benefit from the dialog.  After teaching and demonstrating Math Player
> we have convinced out math teachers to start using it to develop their
> materials so our blind students can have accessibility....!!!  Here's the
> glitch.  We have a stats teacher who has developed all her materials but is
> having trouble putting them on Blackboard.  I must admit our Blackboard
> uses Mozilla, and that may be the issue.  Is there any way for us to get
> around this and get her material out there.  We are hoping to Math Jax on
> at the server level to avoid issues from the student browser side.  Any
> guidence/info would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Bente J. Casile
>
> Bente J. Casile
> Math Learning Specialist
> Disability Services
> Holding Hall Room 124
> Wake Technical Community College
>  Email correspondence to and from this address may be subject to the North
> Carolina Public Records law and may be disclosed to third parties by an
> authorized state official (NCGS. ch. 132).  Student educational records are
> subject to FERPA.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >>> Neil Soiffer <NeilS at dessci.com> 12/1/2011 8:11 PM >>>
> After many months of saying MathPlayer 3 will be available in a couple of
> weeks, it is now really available.  For more info about what's in
> MathPlayer 3, see:
>
> http://accessiblemath.dessci.com/2011/12/mathplayer-3-preview-release-1-is-now-available.html
>
> If you use IE9, I do NOT recommend that you download MathPlayer 3 at this
> time.  Late in the development, we discovered that IE 9's support of XHTML
> is not letting AT get at MathPlayer's interfaces.  We have been working
> with the IE9 team since then to identify the problem and try and get it
> resolved.  That discussion is still on-going.  For visual display of
> MathML, MathPlayer and IE9 work well together.
>
> Neil Soiffer
> Senior Scientist
> Design Science, Inc.
> www.dessci.com
> ~ Makers of MathType, MathFlow, MathPlayer, MathDaisy, Equation Editor ~
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