[Blindmath] MyMathLab and inaccessible etext

Wed May 15 20:36:03 UTC 2013

Good! Hope it works. If you need me I am here.

Sent from my iPhone

On May 15, 2013, at 4:17 PM, "Andy B." <sonfire11 at gmail.com> wrote:

> The DS office is attempting to talk to the DS director to see what they can
> come up with.
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Dan Burke
> Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2013 4:03 PM
> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] MyMathLab and inaccessible etext
> 
> It's true whether you are a Braille reader or not. Under the ADA and Section
> 504, your college must ensure that its courses, including textbooks, are
> accessible to and usable by you.  They can't say they can't, but you may
> have to take formal action to get them moving.  And it will hinge on whether
> they can come to understand that PDF won't be accessible for mathematics.
> 
> Dan
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 5/15/13, Penny Gray <grayp at bucks.edu> wrote:
>> Are you a Nemeth braille reader? If so, in the United States, they are 
>> required to make the book accessible to you. We'd braille our books 
>> for our students who need them.
>> 
>> Penny
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of 
>> Michael Whapples
>> Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2013 1:05 AM
>> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
>> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] MyMathLab and inaccessible etext
>> 
>> See my comments below. My comments are general, in the US I do not 
>> know what the legal situation might be on whether you could push some of
> the points.
>> 
>> On 15/05/2013 04:05, Andy B. wrote:
>>> I am taking a college algebra class at school. The entire class is 
>>> done in MathLAB including the textbook. Unfortunately, I cannot get 
>>> the textbook in a usable format for screen readers; I use JAWS 14 and 
>>> Windows 8. I told the school to request MathML, but the publisher 
>>> said that the only format they have is an unlocked pdf file. I do not 
>>> trust these pdf files for math because JAWS reads left-to-right and 
>>> top-to-bottom. Considering the following things, what should I do to 
>>> successfully get my math credit?
>> You are right to question PDF, at the moment PDF and math is not 
>> accessible.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 1.       I was required to buy into the class and textbook before having
>>> the
>>> ability to evaluate the accessibility of the textbook.
>> One would hope that then support will be given, probably this really 
>> should come from the school as they put together the course but the 
>> publisher might be able to help when it comes to the book.
>> 
>> While not really what you want, if they really cannot make it 
>> accessible then one would hope the course fee could be refunded.
>>> 2.       The school cannot get the textbook in a usable format
>> Depending on the circurmstance then the school may have an 
>> responsibility (may be a legal responsibility) to make the course 
>> accessible, this might involve them getting the book transcribed to a 
>> different format. In my view it does not matter the publisher does not 
>> have another format available, the school should have considered this 
>> when choosing their course books if they did not want the task of getting
> it converted to an accessible format.
>> 
>> While it comes at a price, one might try putting the PDF through 
>> infty-reader which will do OCR on the math and may be a starting point 
>> for a MathML version. The school may consider buying it for you.
>>> 3.       The publisher claims the textbook is online, and there is no
>>> screen
>>> reader usable format to give.
>> I would almost bet money that it was not created originally in PDF.
>> However it does not mean the original format would be accessible. 
>> While not necessarily my preferred option, but some do ask publishers 
>> and authors for LaTeX copies, but I know publishers can be reluctant 
>> to give LaTeX versions, I have heard authors tend to be a bit better.
>>> 4.       The school cannot change the textbook because it alters the very
>>> nature of the class.
>> This is an understandable position, however depending what effort is 
>> needed to support you they may in future wish to investigate 
>> accessibility of a book before designing a course around it.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
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>> 
>> 
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>> du
>> 
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> 
> 
> --
> Dan Burke, President
> The National Federation of the Blind of Montana www.nfbmontana.org Visit us
> on Face Book at http://bit.ly/nfbmtfb My Cell:  406.546.8546
> 
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