[Blindmath] How to study Maths using a computer...

Sun Aug 11 22:28:10 UTC 2013

Hello,
Before answering I will just give a small amount of background to me so 
you know what angle I will be approaching this.

I am in the UK. I went to a specialist school for blind people, where I 
used Braille mainly to complete class work, although I did have good 
computer skills. About 10 years ago I studied a physics degree. About 3 
years ago I changed direction and did a post graduate diploma in 
computing for commerce and industry.

OK, having now got the introduction out of the way. The first thing to 
note was that when I did my physics degree getting Maths into the 
British Braille code seemed near on impossible without having someone 
manually transcribe it. What Braille maths code do you use? I believe 
for anything but Nemeth there is not particularly good support for it in 
Braille translation packages (those that do support other Braille maths 
codes do not have the same standard one might find in the Nemeth 
support). As the university was not going to get it manually transcribed 
to Braille other systems for reading were needed for reading information 
from the university.

Having said the above though, you should not entirely give up on 
Braille, it can be very useful for when you need to make notes for 
yourself or when performing working out. As this sort of stuff will be 
for your use only use whatever is easiest for you.

Now for the communicating with others. LaTeX is one solution. As 
mentioned TeXShop on the Mac is accessible with VoiceOver and can be 
found as part of MacTeX.

One difficulty with LaTeX is learning it, there can be quite a lot to 
learn, particularly if going for LaTeX as a complete document solution 
as you would write the entire document using LaTeX (so forget all you 
learnt in other word processing packages, LaTeX does it its own way). 
Two resources I would mention for learning LaTeX are "The not so short 
introduction to LaTeX" and the LaTeX Wikibook (sorry I do not have a 
link for the wikibook but doing a google search for latex and wikibook 
should find it). While learning LaTeX can be quite an effort, if you 
will use it a lot then the time learning it may be time well spent, 
LaTeX can produce some really good looking documents.

One thing some might suggest but I would disagree is whether LaTeX 
should be used for reading or whether LaTeX is an accessible way of 
reading maths. I personally say no, there normally is too much unwanted 
formatting stuff, authors may use custom macros, may use commands you 
aren't used to (there normally is at least two or three ways to do 
something in LaTeX), etc. I personally say its only really good for 
writing and may be is a last resort for reading.

My preferred way of using LaTeX is to use the math part of it within 
other tools. A prime example of this would be Microsoft Word and 
MathType (NOTE: only on windows for the LaTeX input). In this situation 
you write the main part of your document using a tool you know (eg. 
Microsoft Word) and then when you get to an equation you just use LaTeX 
notation including the LaTeX math markers to show it is an equation. 
Then you get MathType to convert the LaTeX equations into MathType 
equations which should look visually like standard print maths. Also I 
work for ViewPlus and can mention about the new LEAN Math tool we are 
creating to work with MathType equations in Word, which should allow 
fairly advanced navigation of the equations and manipulation. At the 
moment we are in beta testing stage, there certainly are a few things 
which need ironing out, but if you are interested then you might be able 
to join the beta test. I think the plan is that it will be free for 
individuals such as yourself. John Gardner from ViewPlus posted some 
details of this a few weeks ago on this list if you want to look back in 
the archives.

While the MathType and Word example is really only suitable for Windows, 
I do believe MacTeX has stuff which creates images of LaTeX equations in 
word processors like TextEdit or Pages, in a similar way to MathType and 
Word. However I am not sure whether I recommend this Mac option, I do 
not know how good the print maths is when produced this way and 
VoiceOver lacks some features I would deem critical for a student when 
working in pages or TextEdit (eg. working in a table in a document).

I think using LaTeX for the full document in TeXShop is the only option 
I would recommend on the Mac due to the deficiences of VoiceOver in 
TextEdit and Pages.

Back to the reading thing. If I do not advised LaTeX then what do I 
advise? I am not sure the ideal solution exists, but I think MathPlayer 
and MathML sort of head along the route I feel one should head, 
presenting the maths in a more natural form (IE. spoken text and I 
believe may be the latest version of MathPlayer Braille).  No need to 
learn strange complicated syntax or work out custom macros. Ideally 
MathPlayer should have better navigation of equations, but I do 
understand some of the limitations the developers face and it probably 
needs action from screen reader developers (so may be contact them 
saying that you would be interested in any screen reader that could 
offer compelling math accessibility). Also LEAN Math that we are 
developing at ViewPlus is a possible option here.

One thing I did find very useful when doing my physics degree was a 
Braille display, and personally I could not imagine working with LaTeX 
code without a Braille display. I do not know what grants may be 
available, but if you can get a Braille display funded it may very well 
be worth it. Also now I work for ViewPlus as a software engineer I also 
find the Braille display very useful for working with computer source 
code. The things I mainly find the Braille display useful for are: 
Moving to the part of the line of interest to me, matching up brackets, 
identifying indentation levels (critical for languages like Python where 
indentation is significant), those punctuation marks which in code are 
important but not normally desired to be spoken by a screen reader when 
reading normal text, etc.

The final thing I will note is that depending on what computing stuff 
you do depends on how important the maths really is. My computing post 
graduate diploma focussed very much on the project management side of 
things and in my oppinion required only basic maths (nothing more than 
high school maths). May be it is my background in a physics degree which 
gave me that oppinion, it may have been basic compared to the maths used 
for physics. May be other computing courses require more maths skills.

I hope some of this has been useful.

Michael Whapples
On 11/08/2013 16:01, Vincenzo Rubano wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm Vincenzo, I'm 19 and I am blind. In september, I'll start attending a computer science degree course at University of Bologna, in Italy (I'm italian :-)).
>
> Until now, I've always used a computer at school to study any subject, except for Maths which I've only studied using the traditional Braille and other paper-based supports. Now, in order to study Maths efficiently at university, I need to switch from the way of studying Maths that I am used to, to a computer-based way of doing it.
>
> I know that LaTeX and MathML exist and what they are used for. Teachers at university have already said that they will provide me with all the material written in LaTeX and I think that this is great. But, what tools would you recommend me to use to read LaTeX? And, what should I use to do an exercise and deliver it to the teacher?
>
> Since I am mostly a Mac OS X user, I'd really love to get something working with Mac OS X and Voiceover; however, I won't have any problems using Windows and a screen reader in a virtual machine.
>
> Also, is there anyone who studied/is studying computer science at university? What problems regarding Maths did you encounter/are you encountering? And, eventually, how did you solve/are you solving them?
>
> Thanks in advance for your replies! :-) Help is really appreciated.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Vincenzo.
>   
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