[Blindmath] The LEANMath Editor, making math really accessible

[Brian Richwine]

Hello John,

Thanks so much for your work in this area. I listened in on your EASI
presentation the other week on LEAN Math. I hope it can be rescheduled soon!

We are working on ways to support a student who is blind and has a
restriction in his sense of touch to the point that he can not read braille
or use tactile diagrams. I'd love to be a beta tester of your LEAN Math
application.

Sincerely,
  Brian Richwine

On Sun, Jun 16, 2013 at 10:58 AM, John Gardner <john.gardner at viewplus.com>wrote:

> Hello all, I've been on this list for years hearing over and over and over
> the difficulties of blind people who need to read math and most
> particularly
> who need to write and manipulate math.  So last year I finally just decided
> to do something about it.  I'm not a software engineer but I can write
> simple scripts, so I set about to create a reading/authoring application
> that was usable and affordable by anybody.  This new LEAN Math application
> can be a stand-alone editor but is most useful as an interface to
> mainstream
> math apps.  The first implementation is as an interface to MS
> Word+MathType,
> the most popular scientific authoring software in the world.  A preliminary
> manual is available at:
>
> http://www.access2science.com/mathml/LEANMath_Manual.html
>
>
>
> Today I am announcing that the beta period will open later in June and
> would
> like to have about a dozen volunteers to beta test it.  If you have a
> Windows computer with MS Word and a recent (version 6.5 or later) version
> of
> MathType, and are struggling with reading/writing math, I hope you will
> volunteer to beta test it.  LEAN is a descendant of the Triangle and LAMBDA
> projects in the sense that there is a special intuitive compact linear
> notation.  I believe that anybody who uses a speech screen reader will be
> delighted with LEAN.  If you use Braille, well maybe yes and maybe no.
> Because LEAN Braille is not a conventional math Braille.  If it was
> possible
> to adapt a conventional math Braille to LEAN I would do it, but it just
> isn't.  I'll leave it to the list experts to explain why.  LEAN Braille is
> modeled on European computer Braille and has "dot-six" numbers that are
> easy
> to learn if you want to.  It has symbols for special LEAN characters that
> (I
> think) are pretty intuitive but that will have to be learned.  A Braille
> lexicon will be included as reference.  One can use either 6 or 8 dot
> Braille, which can be derived from each other and can even be mixed. The
> 8-dot version is very compact.
>
>
>
> LEANMath will soon be a commercial product available from ViewPlus.  No
> cost
> licenses will be given to individuals for personal use.  Clearly ViewPlus
> cannot afford to provide any support to free software, and I am hoping that
> this list can become a forum for helping individuals with LEANMath.
>
>
>
> I'm happy to start signing up people for beta testing.  I need to thanks
> several people for various bits of help with LEAN including Courtney
> Christensen, Kyle Keane, Yuemei Sun, and most particularly Michael
> Whapples.
> Michael and Yuemei have made the software that connected my simple-minded
> Python script with Word and MathType as well as write the UI.
>
>
>
> John Gardner
>
>
>
>
>
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