[Blindmath] The inline math problem affecting the proposal to use UEB text and Nemeth math

[Neil Soiffer]

I don't really read braille (that's an understatement!) so I don't have an
informed opinion to express in this matter.  But I do want to point out to
those of you who do have opinions in either direction that the people you
need to be discussing this with are the people who vote.  From the BANA
site, here are the voting members:

Sandy Greenberg,Alternate Text Production Center of the California
Community Colleges (ATPC)
Kim Charlson, American Council of the Blind
Frances Mary D'Andrea, American Foundation for the Blind
Mary Nelle McLennan, American Printing House for the Blind
May Davis, Associated Services for the Blind
Diane Wormsley, Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind
and Visually Impaired
Ruth McKinney, Braille Institute of America
Sue Reilly, California Transcribers and Educators for the Blind and
Visually Impaired
Darleen Bogart, CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind)
Kim McEachern, Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired
Maryann Bartkowski, Horizons for the Blind
Jackie Sheridan, National Braille Press
Judy Dixon, National Library Service for the Blind and Physically
Handicapped
Cindi Laurent, National Braille Association
Jennifer Dunnam, National Federation of the Blind

Sorry -- I don't have email addrs, but I'm sure they can be found via
search or queries to the people who run the various groups.

I'm sure that many of the groups have procedures to determine how their
member will vote.  E.g., it sounds like NFB decided at their convention
this summer.  Others might decide based on the recommendations of a small
group of people.  If you want to influence the vote, you need to be in
touch with these people as it is very likely that many very little
knowledge of the advantages and disadvantages of the change as it affects
technical material. I would be surprised if any of them know Nemeth code,
so it is up to experts like Susan and Steve and others on this list to make
them aware of the pros and cons of the change.

Neil Soiffer
Senior Scientist
Design Science, Inc.
www.dessci.com
~ Makers of MathType, MathFlow, MathPlayer, MathDaisy, Equation Editor ~




On Sat, Oct 27, 2012 at 5:15 PM, Susan Jolly <easjolly at ix.netcom.com> wrote:

> According BANA's September 5, 2012 report titled Concurrent Use of UEB and
> Nemeth Code, the approach BANA plans to adopt will be to use UEB for
> surrounding text and to use Nemeth code for actual math.  This approach is
> technically feasible for displayed math where there would be some sort of
> explicit or implied indicators for switching to Nemeth math and then back
> to
> UEB text.
>
> However, it seems to me that this approach could be problematic for dealing
> with the large amount of embedded or inline math typically present in
> technical material.  This issue is illustrated by the three paragraphs on
> the third page of the introductory chapter of the book "Div, Grad, Curl,
> and
> All That: An Informal Text on Vector Calculus." All of the math on this
> page
> is inline or embedded; there is no displayed math. By the way, this book is
> intended primarily for self-teaching.
>
> The following is an edited version of the first paragraph where all of the
> inline mathematical notation, with the exceptions of single-letter
> variables
> and of numbers, has been replaced with "MATH" to show that the surrounding
> text by itself is incomplete.
>
> "A function of one variable, generally written MATH, is a rule which tells
> us how to associate two numbers, x and y; given x, the function tells us
> how
> to determine the associated value of y. Thus, for example, if MATH, then we
> calculate y by squaring x and then subtracting 2. So, if MATH."
>
> The second paragraph extends the discussion from functions of one variable
> to functions of more than one variable and uses five inline math
> expressions
> to show the differences between the two cases. The third paragraph states
> that the "functions so far discussed are scalar functions" rather than
> vector functions and uses nine inline math expressions to show the
> differences in notation for vector functions of more than one variable. In
> summary, taken together these three paragraphs have 17 separate inline math
> expressions.
>
> I suggest that BANA needs to give more thought to the impact of using UEB
> surrounding text on the ease of reading and understanding inline Nemeth
> math.
>
> Sincerely,
> Susan Jolly
>
>
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