[Blindmath] FW: Recent posts from Design Science News

Fri Oct 11 21:48:45 UTC 2013

Here is another contact:

Rob Sinclair
Director, Accessible Technology Group
Microsoft Corporation
robsi at microsoft.com

Jamal

On 10/11/2013 5:41 PM, Neil Soiffer wrote:
> They are a big organization, and we don't have a great way to contact the
> important people directly. I do have a couple of IE developer email addrs,
> but I don't think it is appropriate I put them out to a wide list.  The
> method we suggest in the post is:
>
> "You can report Internet Explorer issues directly to them at
> http://connect.microsoft.com/IE. If you can contact their Technical Support
> Staff by telephone your report will carry even more weight. You can contact
> Microsoft Technical Support at (800) 936-5700."
>
> Again, getting this fix is a matter of numbers:  the more people who
> complain about the IE10 bug, the more likely it is that they will fix it.
>
>
> Neil Soiffer
> SeniorScientist
> Design Science, Inc.
> www.dessci.com
> ~ Makers of MathType, MathFlow, MathPlayer, MathDaisy, Equation Editor ~
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Oct 11, 2013 at 12:33 PM, Michael Whapples <mwhapples at aim.com>wrote:
>
>> Neil, what is the best way for us to let Microsoft know our views?
>> Sometimes these companies are so large it is hard to know where to go to
>> let the people who need to know hear our comments.
>>
>> Michael Whapples
>>
>> On 11/10/2013 20:28, Neil Soiffer wrote:
>>
>>> As the person who wrote the blog post, I obviously do think it is bad
>>> news.
>>> The only way Microsoft will fix it if users like the people who read this
>>> list and use MathPlayer give them a call and complain. It is hard to
>>> believe it would take even close to a person-day to fix the IE10 bug.
>>> Without pressure to fix the bug from users, they aren't motivated to fix
>>> their crash. So please call and don't assume someone else will do it --
>>> everyone who cares needs to do it because they need to hear from lots of
>>> people to make it a priority.
>>>
>>> Neil Soiffer
>>> SeniorScientist
>>> Design Science, Inc.
>>> www.dessci.com
>>> ~ Makers of MathType, MathFlow, MathPlayer, MathDaisy, Equation Editor ~
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Oct 10, 2013 at 5:41 AM, Lewicki, Maureen
>>> <mlewicki at bcsd.neric.org>**wrote:
>>>
>>>   Your thoughts, Folks? I am not familiar with this but it sounds like bad
>>>> news for accessibility
>>>>
>>>> Maureen Murphy Lewicki
>>>> Maureen Murphy Lewicki
>>>> Teacher of Visually Impaired
>>>> Bethlehem Central School
>>>> 332 Kenwood AvenueDelmar, NY 12054
>>>> http://bethlehemschools.org<ht**tp://bethlehemschools.org/<http://bethlehemschools.org/>
>>>> (518) 439-7460
>>>> Fax (518) 475-0092
>>>> "The real problem of blindness is not the loss of eyesight.  The
>>>> real problem is the misunderstanding and lack of education that
>>>> exists.  If a blind person has the proper training and
>>>> opportunity, blindness can be reduced to a mere physical
>>>> nuisance."Kenneth Jernigan
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> From: Weinstock, Gwen
>>>> Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2013 8:38 AM
>>>> To: Lewicki, Maureen
>>>> Subject: FW: Recent posts from Design Science News
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ______________________________**__
>>>> From: noreply+feedproxy at google.com<**mailto:noreply+feedproxy@**
>>>> google.com <noreply%2Bfeedproxy at google.com>> [
>>>> noreply+feedproxy at google.com] on behalf of Design Science News [
>>>> newsblog at dessci.com]
>>>> Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2013 8:13 AM
>>>> To: Weinstock, Gwen
>>>> Subject: Recent posts from Design Science News
>>>> Recent posts from Design Science News<http://news.dessci.com/>
>>>>
>>>> [Link to Design Science News]  <http://news.dessci.com/>
>>>>
>>>> ______________________________**__
>>>>
>>>> Microsoft cripples the display of math in IE10 & 11<
>>>> http://feedproxy.google.com/~**r/DesignScienceNews/~3/6nqx-**
>>>> VpbPgg/microsoft-cripples-**display-math-ie10-11.html?utm_**
>>>> source=feedburner&utm_medium=**email<http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DesignScienceNews/~3/6nqx-VpbPgg/microsoft-cripples-display-math-ie10-11.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email>
>>>> Posted: 09 Oct 2013 09:25 AM PDT
>>>> [IeNoMathml] <
>>>> http://designscience.typepad.**com/.a/**6a00e54f0d27e28834019affe1def0**
>>>> 970c-pi<http://designscience.typepad.com/.a/6a00e54f0d27e28834019affe1def0970c-pi>
>>>> For the past 12 years, IE users have benefited from our free MathPlayer
>>>> plugin<http://www.dessci.com/**en/products/mathplayer/<http://www.dessci.com/en/products/mathplayer/>>
>>>> to display and
>>>> speak math on the web. MathPlayer has been downloaded over a million
>>>> times
>>>> and billions of expressions have been rendered by it on the web.
>>>> Additionally, tens of million expressions have been spoken allowing
>>>> people
>>>> with disabilities from dyslexia to blindness to get access to math.
>>>> However, MathPlayer cannot be made to work with IE 10 or IE11 until
>>>> Microsoft decides it is worth their attention.
>>>>
>>>> Until they address the problems, it means an end to accessible math in IE
>>>> -- IE goes from being the best solution for math accessibility to having
>>>> no
>>>> math accessibility. It also means that websites that deliver math need to
>>>> use the JavaScript-based MathJax<http://www.mathjax.org**> solution if
>>>> the
>>>> math is going to render in IE. MathJax is a great solution and works with
>>>> MathPlayer now, but without MathPlayer, the display is many times slower
>>>> than if MathPlayer is used. So with every page containing math that you
>>>> view, you are paying a price for the lack of MathML support in IE.
>>>>
>>>> Why MathPlayer doesn't work in IE10 and IE11
>>>>
>>>> We wish we could make MathPlayer work with IE10 and IE11, but we can't. A
>>>> half a year ago when we released MathPlayer 3, IE10 simply had too many
>>>> bugs for us to be able to say MathPlayer worked with it. A recent update
>>>> to
>>>> IE10 fixed a number of bugs so that MathPlayer now works tantalizingly
>>>> well
>>>> except that math inside of a span or table causes IE10 to crash. The
>>>> crash
>>>> is in IE10, not MathPlayer -- earlier versions of IE work well with the
>>>> same MathPlayer code. Unfortunately, these two cases occur quite often,
>>>> so
>>>> MathPlayer isn't usable in IE10. Microsoft is aware of the bug but
>>>> indicated that fixing the problem was not a priority for them.
>>>>
>>>> There is a different reason why we can't make MathPlayer work with IE11:
>>>> Microsoft disabled the plug-in technology MathPlayer uses to display math
>>>> in IE called a binary behavior. Behaviors allow third party developers to
>>>> extend the capabilities of the browser. It is a powerful idea, but
>>>> unfortunately Microsoft disabled support for binary behaviors<
>>>> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-**us/library/ie/bg182625%28v=vs.**
>>>> 85%29.aspx#legacyAPIs<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ie/bg182625%28v=vs.85%29.aspx#legacyAPIs>
>>>>
>>>>> .
>>>>>
>>>> What can you do?
>>>>
>>>> If math and accessible math on the web is important to you, make some
>>>> noise! Write a blog post, share this story with your friends and
>>>> colleagues, contact Microsoft directly and get your friends and
>>>> colleagues
>>>> to do so also. If they get enough direct feedback from customers - not
>>>> other software developers, they will hopefully give this matter the
>>>> attention it deserves. You can report Internet Explorer issues directly
>>>> to
>>>> them at http://connect.microsoft.com/**IE<http://connect.microsoft.com/IE>.
>>>> If you can contact their
>>>> Technical Support Staff by telephone your report will carry even more
>>>> weight. You can contact Microsoft Technical Support at (800) 936-5700.
>>>>
>>>> In the meantime, if you need math accessibility or don't want to wait
>>>> extra time for pages to display math, don't upgrade to IE10 or IE11. That
>>>> also means not upgrading to Windows 8.x because Windows 8.x only supports
>>>> IE10 and IE11.
>>>>
>>>> With your help, we hope that IE returns to being the best browser for
>>>> viewing math.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> You are subscribed to email updates from Design Science News<
>>>> http://news.dessci.com/>
>>>> To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now<
>>>> http://feedburner.google.com/**fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=**
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>>>>
>>>>> .
>>>>>
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>>>>
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>>>>
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>>
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