[Blindmath] Accessible documents - alternate text in LaTeX

[Jonathan Godfrey]

Hi,

I've pondered this question myself when preparing accessible 
statistics course material.

Through careful construction of batch files that process latex files, 
I am creating documents that look good as html (used online) and pdf 
versions suitable for printing out by sighted students.

The html is readable by the blind students I've worked with. As it 
happens, I also make xml files that then work with MathPlayer for 
even better access to formulae. At this point in time, I have not 
needed to use alt tags in the html as I can get by with the use of 
the \caption command to get what I want.

The key is that I use a different main file for each format, with 
differing preamble commands to get the styles I want. The actual 
chapters of the resources I create are kept separate from these main 
files. Each main file pulls in the chapters using the \input command in LaTeX.


When it comes time to needing an alt tag, possibly when this 
functionality becomes part of the pdf documents LaTeX creates, I will 
see how these alt tags are created. In the meantime, if I was to put 
extra information into the documents I intend to supply to blind 
students, I would create a new command for use in my figure and table 
environments. Call it \ExtraText for now.

Having used the \ExtraText command when I create a figure or table in 
the chapters, I would then need to tell each main file what to do 
with that command. For the documents going to sighted users, the 
command would do nothing. For the document distributed to blind 
readers the text could be printed inside the figure or table 
environment. If LaTeX ever gets to inclusion of an alt tag command, 
all I'll need to do is to redefine the \ExtraText command so that the 
content gets pushed into the alt tag command instead.

The documents referred to above use this style of working to achieve 
other ends not relevant to this discussion so I am confident the 
above suggestion is viable. I can already see how I can generate the 
extra text required for my own situation with less human intervention 
and more automated generation of the text, but that relies on use of 
R statistical software and its Sweave functionality.

Hope this helps,
Jonathan





_____
Dr A. Jonathan R. Godfrey
Lecturer in Statistics
Institute of Fundamental Sciences
Massey University
Palmerston North

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