[Blindmath] Creating braille math for a refreshable braille display

George Bell george at techno-vision.co.uk
Thu Apr 24 08:37:13 UTC 2014


I'm afraid this is very much down to Bookshare.  It seems totally pointless to produce any literature where such material is simply "omitted", especially when there are tools available to not only input and display the equations visually, but also enable them to be imported into braille.

We have been working very closely with Duxbury, Design Science and braille math end users, and make extensive use of MathType in Word for Windows.  MathType is a low cost add-on for Word, hence tends to be favoured where budgets are tight.

You can import a Word file containing MathType "Objects" into the Duxbury Braille Translator (DBT) where, if necessary, further editing of the braille may be performed.  With the latest versions of Duxbury (11.2 SR1 is the most recent) further improvements have been made, and will continue to be made as issues arise.

With MathType itself, it is just a couple of keystrokes to convert a visually displayed equation into a number of text formats such as LaTeX, which in turn makes it a handy teaching tool.

George

-----Original Message-----
From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Littlefield, Tyler
Sent: 24 April 2014 05:07
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Creating braille math for a refreshable braille display

Hello all:
The OP of this thread was Bridget, who is who I work with to get materials brailled, etc.
This topic came up because we have University Physics, 13th ed from Bookshare and there are a lot of places where it just shows [equation omitted] or a lot of the exercises are not written properly.
We were looking for a way to make this more accessible. She asked about LaTeX to see if we could somehow fill in the missing portions of the book, for example.

If anyone has any suggestions they would be greatly appreciated. Either for how to make this process work, or of a version of this book that is already brailled, or is in BRF format and can be read.
Thanks,
On 4/23/2014 10:31 AM, Michael Whapples wrote:
> Hello,
> My memory of Duxbury and Scientific notebook is that scientific 
> notebook produces a flavour of LaTeX, it may even have added some of 
> its own command definitions.
>
> This is the thing with LaTeX, there normally is so many different ways 
> of doing things, one may define their own commands, etc, so it is very 
> unlikely that any software will support all LaTeX files.
>
> When I was doing my physics degree we had a whole list of LaTeX which 
> Duxbury understood and another list of LaTeX which did not agree with 
> duxbury.
>
> I know that even some of the LaTeX from scientific notebook did not 
> agree with duxbury, so normally the LaTeX was hand edited with the 
> typists paying attention to the above mentioned lists.
>
> So I think my comment is that it supports LaTeX in a limited form, not 
> necessarily restricted to what scientific notebook produced.
>
> Also it is worth noting that I am speaking of my experience of 
> obtaining UK Braille from Duxbury and it was about 2006 when I last 
> used it. Things may have improved and may be different for Nemeth output.
>
> Michael Whapples
> On 23/04/2014 15:14, John Gardner wrote:
>> Hello, I am surprised by this exchange. My understanding is that 
>> Duxbury translates files made by Scientific Notebook but not "real' 
>> Tex files.  I know that there are Duxbury people on this list.  
>> Please confirm if Duxbury can translate regular LaTeX.  If so I agree 
>> that it would be awesome.
>>
>> In case Duxbury cannot translate LaTeX, there are several ways to get 
>> Latex to conventional braille.  I confess I am not sure I know all of 
>> them.  One that works quite well is the Tex2Word application 
>> available from http://www.chikrii.com/products/tex2word/tex-to-word/ 
>> for about US$50.  Then use the methods I described earlier for MS 
>> Word.
>>
>> John G
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of 
>> Littlefield, Tyler
>> Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2014 6:39 PM
>> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
>> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Creating braille math for a refreshable 
>> braille display
>>
>> hello:
>> What are the chances of getting a math book in TeX? This is an 
>> awesome solution if it's viable, but I'm thinking it's not due to publishers.
>>
>> What sorts of solutions exist for reading brf on a pc?
>> Thanks,
>> On 4/22/2014 7:53 PM, Sarah Jevnikar wrote:
>>> If math is authored in TeX, it can be opened in Duxbury and saved as 
>>> a brf
>> file. Then it can be read on a Braille display.
>>> HTH,
>>> Sarah
>>>
>>> ________________________________________
>>> From: Blindmath [blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] on behalf of Lynn 
>>> Reed
>> [iamlvr at yahoo.com]
>>> Sent: April 22, 2014 3:30 PM
>>> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
>>> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Creating braille math for a refreshable 
>>> braille
>> display
>>> Sorry guys.....sent to wrong address.
>>>
>>> Peace and Love to all!
>>>
>>>
>>>> On Apr 22, 2014, at 12:28 PM, Lynn Reed <iamlvr at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> This may be helpful for Ellie? Not sure.......
>>>>
>>>> Peace and Love to all!
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> On Apr 22, 2014, at 11:23 AM, "McNamee, Bridget" 
>>>>> <mcnameeb at wit.edu>
>> wrote:
>>>>> Does anyone have step by step instructions on how to author 
>>>>> accessible
>> math that can be used with a refreshable braille display?
>>>>>
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-- 
Take care,
Ty
http://tds-solutions.net
He that will not reason is a bigot; he that cannot reason is a fool; he that dares not reason is a slave.


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