[Blindmath] Typing in Nemeth Braille

[Michael Whapples]

To give an idea how I have used these technologies for myself.

Very brief history lesson of my background: Between 2003 and 2007 I did 
a physics dgree by actually attending a university. Between 2010 and 
2012 I did a post graduate diploma in computing via distance learning. 
In both cases I had no sight which would be of use for reading/viewing 
graphs.

My approach for the physics degree I used LaTeX to write all my 
documents, when needing to hand things in for marking I would produce a 
PDF. In the cases where I would write something only for my own use, I 
would write that in Braille. The university used Braille translation 
software to provide me with course materials in Braille, but as all the 
course materials were converted to LaTeX for the Braille translation 
software, they also gave me the LaTeX source. As already mentioned the 
Braille translation software performed very badly and so whilst I would 
say Braille is much better for reading than LaTeX source, there were 
many times where I needed to refer back to the LaTeX source to know what 
was written. Sometimes cross referencing between Braille and the LaTeX 
could be slightly difficult. Also due to LaTeX normally having multiple 
ways to do certain things, and the use of macros, it could be quite 
difficult to work out what the LaTeX source actually said in some cases. 
For this reason this is why I would normally recommend trying to use 
something more suitable for reading by a human. While I have mentioned 
Braille for reading, one could look at converting the LaTeX to 
xhtml+MathML and read it in internet explorer with MathPlayer (I did not 
follow this route as at the time MathPlayer only supported speech which 
I found difficult).

The computing course, I must note did have significantly less maths in 
it and so I decided to head down the Mathtype route (both for how course 
materials would be provided to me and what I would submit). My reasoning 
here being that MathType does allow publishing the document to HTML with 
MathML and so viewing in internet explorer with MathPlayer, but also 
that the LaTeX notation would be more limited and only present for 
equations. Also this seemed to fit better with the Open University's 
policy on what formats would be accepted, although I am sure that if I 
had wanted to use LaTeX then submitting PDF would probably have been 
approved. While I would say this went much smoother than my physics 
degree, this might very well have been due to the less maths involved 
and that it mainly was maths I had previously done.

On the other hand I would say there have been things I have achieved 
with LaTeX (eg. drawing and creating presentations) which could have 
been much harder with MS Office and other tools.

I very much felt I did not want to be purely reliant on translation 
software or someone translating my work, there is too much chance for 
errors and in my mind is the route to being isolated as you are unable 
to deal with things independently. At least with main stream tools I 
knew I would be able to complete my work by myself and that it would be 
my work marked. Also one is much more likely to get support for main 
stream tools (either from colleagues or online communities).

Michael Whapples
On 16/09/2013 16:24, I. C. Bray wrote:
> Paul,
>
> YES!  That is the kind of perspective I'm looking for.
>
> So, Parallelling Nemeth with LaTeX sounds perhapslike a place to begin.
>
> When did the student (She? or He?) start learning LaTeX?
> Can you give more specifics about how and when, and perhaps why it's not a
> great idea?
>
> You mentioned hang-ups... what have they been?
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Paul Chapin" <pdchapin at amherst.edu>
> To: "Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics"
> <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Monday, September 16, 2013 10:33 AM
> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Typing in Nemeth Braille
>
>
> : When we were looking at how to support a blind student who wanted to major
> in Math, we went through most of the arguments that have been made here.
> However, her first math prof was very strong in urging a latex only
> solution. His argument was two fold.  First, since any serious math major is
> going to have to know latex eventually, it was better to start her off with
> latex from the beginning when the level of complexity is limited than to
> drop her into latex at the advanced level when she'd have to learn it from
> the ground up in one big bite. Second it solves the problem of how to get
> the student's work to the professors. Rather than using Nemeth and then
> going through some gyrations to put it into a format accessible to sighted
> users, the math faculty would simply read the raw latex.
> :
> : In practical terms it isn't working out quite that cleanly but it is an
> interesting long-term strategy. I have to say as someone who is new to the
> issues, and is sighted, that this all seems way more chaotic than it needs
> to be. I'm just struck by the number of different approaches and the number
> of different steps most of the solutions involve.
> :
> : Paul Chapin
> : Academic Technology Specialist
> : Amherst College
> : X2144
> :
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