[Blindmath] making PDF textbooks accessible is a HUGE problem

Shepherd, Amy amyshepherd at mpvi.org
Mon Jul 30 20:29:00 UTC 2012 

My 7th grade son is legally blind and is a dual print/braille reader.  He
is able to access most of his work using magnification on his laptop.  It
is hard for him to write legibly so he types all of his work, including
math.

He currently uses his MAC laptop and magnification to access his math
textbook, which has been converted to MS Word 2011 He is learning to use
MathType to enter in mathematical equations.

The NIMAC system * http://www.nimac.us/  *has textbooks that can be
converted into Daisy, Braille or RTF files.  Textbooks are
only available to students with print disabilities. Each state should have
at least one "Authorized User" who can assign NIMAS File textbooks to
teachers/administrators who become "Accessible Media Producers(AMP)".
 Their website has information on the process to become an AMP.   The only
problem I have found with NIMAS files is that they are usually the most
recent copyrights of the textbooks. For example, our school is still using
textbooks that are 2006 copyrights, but the NIMAS files are 2008-2011.

NIMAS files (.opf) can then be converted (VERY EASILY) via this online site
to either Daisy, Braille or RTF files.  I have only converted to RTF, this
can include pictures and color!

•    http://aim.cast.org/experience/technologies/nimas_conversion_tool

You can then open the RTF file in MS Word and save as MS Word file.  Once
in MS Word you will need to do some reformatting, especially of pictures.
 This can be very time consuming, but also very worth it since it creates
an accessible book.

Once in Word you can then use the program MathType to enter equations
directly into your word document. http://www.dessci.com/en/dl/

So far this process seems to be working for us, but I do know it will
become increasingly more complicated as the math gets harder and harder!

Amy Shepherd
MPVI President
Visit our Website www.mpvi.org <http://www.mpvi.org/>
 Join us on Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/groups/48271986241/>

On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 1:30 PM, Mary Woodyard <marywoodyard at comcast.net>wrote:

> This inability to easily make PDF textbooks accessible is probably one of
> the biggest challenges K-12 and college students face today.  In my son's
> academic experience - his Math textbooks are not used at all.  Every lesson
> is taught with a PDF the teacher or the grade level chairs for Math have
> put
> together themselves.  This problem was created because each state had their
> own standard and a lot of textbooks were written for other state's
> standards
> so each state starting customizing their own curriculum to their own
> standards.  My son is in 10th grade now and I actually cannot remember a
> year in his academic life where they used his Math book.
>
> Science - they do seem to use some of the book.  Math - not so much.  I
> only
> comment on this to illustrate the need to help our students figure out how
> to make these PDFs accessible as soon as possible.  To make it even harder,
> the school frequently changes the order their curriculum is taught.  My son
> is lucky - he has a parapro enlarging his copies to 11 by 17 and he has
> enough usable vision to be able to interpret them if the contrast is good
> and the spacing is adequate.  However, the lesson plans can change suddenly
> and they will have enlarged the wrong lesson for him.
>
> I know everyone is working on it - but the sooner someone can help our
> students access these Math and Science PDFs - the better.  Hopefully with a
> majority of the states moving to the Common Core standards -soon they
> schools will have textbooks that reflect their standards.  However, there
> will always be teachers that teach from PDFs.  In fact - I would estimate
> that 70% of my son's curriculum is PDF driven.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org]
> On
> Behalf Of blindmath-request at nfbnet.org
> Sent: Monday, July 30, 2012 1:01 PM
> To: blindmath at nfbnet.org
> Subject: Blindmath Digest, Vol 72, Issue 15
>
> Send Blindmath mailing list submissions to
>         blindmath at nfbnet.org
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
>         http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindmath_nfbnet.org
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
>         blindmath-request at nfbnet.org
>
> You can reach the person managing the list at
>         blindmath-owner at nfbnet.org
>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than
> "Re: Contents of Blindmath digest..."
>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. making pdf textbook accessible (John Heim)
>    2. Re: making pdf textbook accessible (John Gardner)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2012 09:37:09 -0500
> From: "John Heim" <jheim at math.wisc.edu>
> To: "Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics"
>         <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: [Blindmath] making pdf textbook accessible
> Message-ID: <83DF1373EB0E428B8053E21504C43863 at math.wisc.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
>         reply-type=original
>
> All,
>
> I am working with a professor who has written a calculus textbook as a pdf
> document.  He wants to know if it will be accessible and if not how to make
> it so.  He says the forumlas in the book were created via pdflatex.
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2012 08:46:04 -0700
> From: "John Gardner" <john.gardner at orst.edu>
> To: "'Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics'"
>         <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] making pdf textbook accessible
> Message-ID: <004301cd6e6a$6dc3a720$494af560$@gardner at orst.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="us-ascii"
>
> Hi, the unfortunate answer is "no".  The Latex source files can be read by
> some blind people.  Can the original Latex document be converted to HTML
> with math as MathML, using something like TX4HT?  That could be quite
> accessible.
>
> There presently is no direct way to make PDF math accessible.  Even text in
> PDF is often inaccessible unless it is tagged.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org]
> On
> Behalf Of John Heim
> Sent: Monday, July 30, 2012 7:37 AM
> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
> Subject: [Blindmath] making pdf textbook accessible
>
> All,
>
> I am working with a professor who has written a calculus textbook as a pdf
> document.  He wants to know if it will be accessible and if not how to make
> it so.  He says the forumlas in the book were created via pdflatex.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blindmath mailing list
> Blindmath at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindmath_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> Blindmath:
>
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindmath_nfbnet.org/john.gardner%40orst.e
> du
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blindmath mailing list
> Blindmath at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindmath_nfbnet.org
>
>
> End of Blindmath Digest, Vol 72, Issue 15
> *****************************************
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blindmath mailing list
> Blindmath at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindmath_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> Blindmath:
>
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindmath_nfbnet.org/amyshepherd%40mpvi.org
>



--

More information about the BlindMath mailing list