[Blindmath] A general thought...call to action on math accessibility

[Noble,Stephen L.]

I must agree that it is disconcerting that very few people are talking about the accessibility issues of math on the web, and more generally about the availability of accessible mathematics in all forms. It is certainly a topic which could use a "call to action." I have tried to do what I can in mobilizing people around this important topic area. It has been a hard fight, though some progress continues to be made.

Back in October, I received an invitation from Kareem Dale at the White House Office of Public Engagement to assemble a small panel of experts to go to Washington and discuss the issue of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) accessibility with the administration. I was fortunate to have Mark Riccobono from NFB and Skip Stahl from CAST to accompany me in Washington, as well as having John Gardner (a regular contributor to this list), George Kerscher from DAISY and Paul Schroeder from AFB on a phone link to the meeting. Mr. Dale invited several officials from the Department of Education, the NSF and the FCC to attend this meeting as well. I believe it was an important first step in moving this issue to a higher level of visibility. But much more needs to be done to move this issue into the public spotlight.

Another angle of advocacy, of course, is litigation. Many of you no doubt are familiar with the recent case of Toth and Principato vs. Florida State University. The NFB is to be commended for supporting the blind students in that case, which has now been settled: http://nfb.org/node/931
The importance of this case is that the core aspect is the accessibility of math courses and the related instructional materials, including both the textbook and an online system used for math homework, tests and quizzes in which the math was not accessible. This marks another important milestone in moving this issue to a higher level of visibility.

So...to get back to your question...yes, I firmly believe that a "call to action" for accessibility of math and other STEM content areas is something we sorely need. I do hope to work more diligently on this topic area and get more people involved. Clearly, there is something that everyone can do. This may include informing your elected representatives in Congress, insisting on accessible math at your school or college, filing complaints with the Office for Civil Rights, lobbying for more vendors and publishers to support accessible math in their products, etc. We really need to work at this problem from several angles. There is something we can all do, no matter where we live or what stage we may be in our life.

Let's rally the troops!

--Steve Noble
steve.noble at louisville.edu
502-969-3088 
________________________________________
From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org [blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] on behalf of Ryan Hemphill [ryanhemphill.email at gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, April 13, 2012 8:20 PM
To: Blind Math Discussion Group
Subject: [Blindmath] A general thought...

I have just been 'invited' to a general discussion set up by Google called
'Take Action' where people are discussing a lot of internet issues out
there.  When I noticed this, I put down some things that I thought ought to
be covered from an accessibility point of view in Rich Internet Apps,
something that I am pretty passionate about.

Then I realized something.  While I have been tracking new content that
shows up on the internet through a feature in Google called 'Alerts' (great
product by the way), one of the things that I had been looking around for
was accessibility issues related to Math on the web for the blind.  I have
not seen a single thing show up.  Period.

Point is, I find it very disconcerting that no one is talking about this
topic.  I'm going to be adding alerts now that are more general towards
Blind math issues, but I thought it would be something worth discussing a
little.  Might even be something that could be a call to action.

What do you guys think?

Ryan

--



Shipping is a Feature...Perhaps the Most Important Feature.
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