[Blindmath] The ALEKS program for mathematics

[Amanda Lacy]

Hi,

This Fall Austin Community College will begin using ALEKS for
developmental math. My job this summer is to test it for accessibility
- figure out what works and what doesn't, so that blind students
enrolled in this course will have a smooth start this semester. First,
have any of you used the online ALEKS system for math? If so, how well
did it work for you, and what assistive technology do you use? Second,
apparently ALEKS has an accessibility mode intended for people using
screen readers. I've been testing it for the past month and have
noticed something peculiar. An example formula reads like this:

The area
ey
 of a circle with radius
r
 is given by the following formula.
ey equals Pie r begin exponent 2 end exponent
Notice that what is intended to be understood as the letter 'a' is
written as the letter 'e' followed by the letter 'y'. Also, Pi is
misspelled! All symbols are spelled out as words. Does anyone here
know where this content came from?

Thanks,
Amanda Lacy