[Blindmath] JAWS and Nemeth - Newbie question

Sat Feb 19 19:27:41 UTC 2011

Hey there Birkir, I would sign it -- let me know if you get a petition 
together...
--le
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Greg" <gwblindman1 at gwblindman.org>
To: "Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics" 
<blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 19, 2011 12:22 PM
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] JAWS and Nemeth - Newbie question


    Hello,
I am all for this.  I would definently support something like this.  The
frustration I have with the hoops I have to go thru just to take a math
class has nearly drove me to stop school.
Greg Wocher
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Birkir Rúnar Gunnarsson" <birkir.gunnarsson at gmail.com>
To: <SusanOsterhaus at tsbvi.edu>; "Blind Math list for those interested in
mathematics" <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2011 12:34 PM
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] JAWS and Nemeth - Newbie question


> What do people think about creating a web-based petition for screen
> reader vendors to add Nemeth support for refreshable braille?
> I know we may only get a handful of signatures but, perhaps, we could
> get a few dozens, even a hundred. But this would create a focus point
> for the effort and we could give a specific action item to people who
> want to request such accessibility upgrade.
> Instead of saying "please ask your screen reader vendor for improved
> math support", we could say "we are collecting signatures from those
> interested in improve math support, please go to page x and sign the
> electronic petition if you want to help".
> I know this worked well for the WayFinder refund demand when Vodafone
> discontinued the product. They got almost 3000 signatures. This is an
> entirely different beast, but the same method might work well, and
> might help people who confuse Susan and Steve.
> What do people think about this?
> -Birkir
>
>
> On 2/18/11, Susan Osterhaus <osterhauss at tsbvi.edu> wrote:
>> Steve,
>>
>> I have heard exactly the same line from vendors: "We have never heard
>> from
>> any of our customers that they actually want to use Nemeth braille with
>> our
>> product." They have also told me that I am one of the few or only person
>> to
>> request math support. I wonder how they got us confused; we don't even
>> look
>> alike! I'm sure that many of you have heard the same quote. Every time I
>> give a presentation, I beg each and everyone in the audience to speak out
>> because of this, and I sure hope that there are a lot of "us" speaking
>> up.
>>
>> Susan
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org]
>> On
>> Behalf Of Stephen L Noble
>> Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2011 6:24 PM
>> To: blindmath at nfbnet.org
>> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] JAWS and Nemeth - Newbie question
>>
>> By the way, there's a crucial subtext to this issue which is often
>> overlooked: that vendors of assistive technology need to hear as much
>> input from customers as possible. I often have conversations with
>> developers about something they need to support, and I am told that I am
>> the one of the few (sometimes they say I am the only) persons who has
>> ever said anything about the need for math support.  Case in point, I
>> specifically asked the product manager of a widely used screen reader
>> about supporting Nemeth in their refreshable braille display output and
>> I was told, "We have never heard from any of our customers that they
>> actually want to use Nemeth braille with our product." Believe it or
>> not, that is a quote.
>>
>> So, the moral of this lesson is none of us should be satisfied with the
>> response that "our product cannot do what you need." I suspect everybody
>> on this list believes that braille support for mathematics is a vital
>> issue, so if everybody on this list started sending emails or made phone
>> calls to tell the company that makes the products he/she uses that
>> supporting math (including Nemeth braille) should be considered
>> mandatory.
>>
>> --Steve Noble
>> steve.noble at louisville.edu
>> 502-969-3088
>>
>>>>> "Kodeswaran, Balaji" <bkodeswaran at air.org> 2/17/2011 3:32 PM >>>
>> Jose,
>>
>> Thank you for your response. However, I am unclear on how I get Nemeth
>> to the RBD through JAWS? On our website, say we are rendering the
>> content as MathML. I am told (by JAWS tech support) that JAWS cannot
>> convert MathML to Nemeth. Also, since our users are primarily Firefox
>> users, they won't have the benefit of MathPlayer (although it is not
>> clear what this provides for IE/JAWS users in this regard). Our thoughts
>> were to see if we could transcribe to Nemeth (Grade 1), stick into the
>> web page in a hidden DIV next to the MathML and see if there are any
>> ARIA (or JAWS specific markup tags) that we could put on the page to
>> send this Nemeth to the Braille display.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>>
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>
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