[Blindmath] jaws and Mathplayer

[Neil Soiffer]

I worked with Sina and narrowed the problem down:

With JAWS 12 and IE9, html files work but xhtml files don't.  The same is
true for the beta of JAWS 13.  Most files with MathML in them on the web are
XHTML files, so this is a pretty bad problem.  I could use some help from
the JAWS users out there to try and narrow this down more before reporting
it to Freedom Scientific.

Here's an HTML file:
http://www.dessci.com/en/products/mathplayer/check.htm

Here's an XML file:
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/18/18.013a/textbook/MathML/chapter13/section01.xhtml

If you have JAWS 12 and a version of IE other than 9, could you
1.  Verify that the HTML file works
2.  Tell me whether the XHTML works.

If you have IE9 and an earlier version of JAWS, could you do the same thing:
1.  Verify that the HTML file works
2.  Tell me whether the XHTML works.

FYI:  I did verify using an accessibility checker tool that MathPlayer is
exposing the correct info for both HTML and XHTML files, so this is
definitely a JAWS bug.

     Neil


On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 7:11 PM, Neil Soiffer <NeilS at dessci.com> wrote:

> There have been an increasing number of reports of problems getting JAWS to
> work with MathPlayer.  Plenty of people have gotten it to work, but some
> haven't.  Could you and anyone else who has had problems with JAWS working
> with MathPlayer please send a note to Design Science's technical support
> team with the following information:
>
> 1.  Version of Windows you are using (XP, Vista, Win 7)
> 2   Whether it is a 32 bit OS or 64 bit OS
> 3.  Version of IE
> 4.  Version of JAWS you are using and whether it is 32 bit or 64 bit.
>
> I don't want to flood this group with that info, so please just send the
> mail to technical support which I have copied here.  If we can see a
> pattern, we'll let you know and see if we can find a work around.
>
> Thank you for your help.  Hopefully with all of the users on this group,
> we'll get enough data to figure out what the common theme is.
>
>      Neil
>
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 9:10 AM, Ben Humphreys <brh at opticinspiration.org>wrote:
>
>> I could never get mathplayer to read anything successfully with either IE
>> 8 or 9, although they claim it's supposed to work with IE 8.
>>
>> The idea that JAWS is the problem makes sense...
>>
>> Ben
>>
>>
>>
>> At 12:33 AM 9/28/2011, you wrote:
>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> For anybody who has jaws installed, and uses Internet Explorer, and who
>>> has Mathplayer working: could you please email me?
>>>
>>> I felt it on topic for this list, as Mathplayer from Design Science is
>>> the only possible way to seamlessly get access to MathML
>>> inside the browser, with a screen reader, and yet, it appears that Jaws
>>> has stopped supporting this essential way to consume
>>> mathematics online.
>>>
>>> If it's working or not working for you, or if you're willing to have me
>>> tell you how to install math player, so you can help test
>>> it: that would be fantastic.
>>>
>>> Oh, if it's a problem on Design Science's end, I know we can most likely
>>> get it resolved. After all, they care so much about math
>>> accessibility to actually have a person on this very list, but more
>>> importantly, it doesn't seem to be them. MSAA inspection tools
>>> are reporting that, in fact, they are outputting the correct information,
>>> so it's probably on Freedom Scientific's end. If we can
>>> get more folks interested and talking about this issue with Freedom
>>> Scientific at their support email address, which is
>>> support at freedomscientific.com, it will go a long way for getting back
>>> some basic access to the mathematics out there on the web.
>>>
>>> Feel free to contact me with non-math related stuff off list at
>>> sbahram at nc.rr.com
>>>
>>> Take care,
>>> Sina
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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