[Blindmath] MathPlayer 4 Beta released -- speak math in IE, Firefox, Word, PPT

Fri Mar 6 14:34:47 UTC 2015

Hi, has anyone had any problems with this? my daughters teacher has had major issues with download with all sort of errors, it looks to be webdesigner issue as the errors have to do with the webpages and how it loads, tried with firefox and IE

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Heidi

-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Mathews via Blindmath <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
To: blindmath <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thu, Mar 5, 2015 1:25 pm
Subject: [Blindmath] MathPlayer 4 Beta released -- speak math in IE, Firefox, Word, PPT

Hi,

We are happy to announce the release of the MathPlayer 4 public beta.
Now, students with blindness or other visual impairments are able learn,
practice and take math and science tests on a more equal footing with their
classroom peers. Design Science has been working jointly with Educational
Testing Service (ETS) and assisted by some of the country's leading subject
matter experts and developers of assistive technology. The initial release works
with the NVDA screen reader to speak and Braille math in Microsoft Word &
PowerPoint, Internet Explorer and Firefox. We expect to announce MathPlayer
support with other AT software products in the coming weeks and
months.

The press release is included below, and available here on our
website:

http://www.dessci.com/en/company/press/releases/150305.htm

Please let me
know if you have questions.

Sincerely,

Bruce
Virga

brucev at dessci.com<mailto:brucev at dessci.com>

EVP of Sales & Business
Development, COO

T: +1 (562) 432-2920

M: +1 (949)
233-8212

Design Science, Inc.
<www.dessci.com<http://www.dessci.com>>

140 Pine Avenue, 4th Floor

Long
Beach, California 90802 USA

~ Makers of MathType, MathFlow & MathPlayer
~

======================

FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE

======================

Design Science Releases MathPlayer 4
Beta

Enables math to be spoken in assistive technology
products.

Long Beach, Calif. - March 5, 2015 - Math and science tests by
their graphic nature are difficult for students who are blind or who have visual
impairments. A major step toward overcoming this barrier is being realized with
today's public beta release of Design Science's MathPlayer 4, with new
math-to-speech technology that enables such test takers to learn, practice, and
take math and science tests on a more equal footing with their classroom
peers.

Design Science has been working jointly with Educational Testing
Service

(ETS) and assisted by some of the country's leading subject matter
experts and developers of assistive technology. The effort is supported by the
U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences through a grant
award of approximately $1.5 million.

In supported environments, the initial
release works with NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA) screen reader to speak and
Braille mathematical content in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, Internet Explorer
and Firefox.

Users can also navigate within any equation to listen, study and
learn at their own pace. In addition, MathPlayer 4 continues to have the most
complete support for MathML and supports both visual rendering and speech in
Internet Explorer (requires Enterprise Mode in IE11).

"MathPlayer 4 makes
it possible for people with visual impairments to hear math as it would be
spoken by a teacher and to navigate the question piece by piece, something that
hasn't been possible before," says Dr. Lois Frankel, Senior Assessment
Specialist at ETS and the project's principal investigator.

"Since our
founding in 1947, ETS's mission has included serving test takers and learners
with disabilities," adds Beth Brownstein, a Senior Assessment Specialist at ETS
and the project's co-principal investigator.

"We have designed and
contributed to advances in assessment design and application in this area and
this project is a wonderful contribution to improved accessibility for this
important population."

"NVDA breaks down barriers to information access for
blind and vision impaired users by enabling them to access Windows computers via
speech or Braille for no more cost than their sighted peers. However, accessing
mathematical content has remained a major challenge. Existing solutions require
specially prepared material, utilize special standalone applications, have a
steep learning curve, or lack features such as interactive navigation that are
necessary to understand complex math,"

said James Teh, Executive Director of
NV Access Limited. "With NVDA and MathPlayer, blind and vision impaired users
can now read and explore math in mainstream applications at no extra cost,
lowering yet another barrier to access."

"Interactive exploration of
mathematics has been the critical missing piece to digital math accessibility.
This is the most meaningful step forward in access to mathematics for the blind
since Dr. Abraham Nemeth's Braille code. Such unparalleled access to digital
mathematics will have an incredible impact in the lives of blind students and
professionals," said Sina Bahram, President of Prime Access Consulting. "I'm so
pleased to have helped shape this meaningful solution to the problem!" added Mr.
Bahram, a computer scientist who is blind, and a contributor to MathPlayer's
design.

"NVDA is the first screen reader to include MathPlayer support in
browsers and Microsoft Office," says Dr. Neil Soiffer, Senior Scientist at
Design Science. "This allows assistive technology vendors to start incorporating
MathPlayer and enhancing what they offer to their customers. I expect we will
start seeing a long string of announcements from other vendors that are
including MathPlayer."

MathPlayer 4 will debut today at the California State
University, Northridge's Annual International Technology and Persons with
Disabilities Conference in San Diego, during the session on Accessible Math
presented by Dr. Soiffer, Dr. Frankel, and Ms. Brownstein. A free download of
the public beta is available on the Design Science website.

About Design
Science

Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Long Beach, California, Design
Science develops software used by educators, scientists and publishing
professionals, including MathType, MathFlow, and MathPlayer, to communicate on
the web and in print. www.dessci.com<http://www.dessci.com>.

About ETS

At
nonprofit ETS, we advance quality and equity in education for people worldwide
by creating assessments based on rigorous research. ETS serves individuals,
educational institutions and government agencies by providing customized
solutions for teacher certification, English language learning, and elementary,
secondary and post-secondary education, as well as conducting education
research, analysis and policy studies. Founded in 1947, ETS develops,
administers and scores more than 50 million tests annually - including the
TOEFL(r) and TOEIC(r) tests, the GRE(r) tests and The Praxis Series(tm)
assessments - in more than 180 countries, at over 9,000 locations worldwide.
www.ets.org<http://www.ets.org>.

About NV Access Limited

Founded in 2007,
NV Access is a global non-profit organisation, based in Australia, dedicated to
the ideal that access to technology should not incur an extra cost for blind and
vision impaired users. NV Access develops NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access), which
is award-winning screen reading software for the Microsoft Windows Operating
System that is completely free to users. NVDA allows a blind or vision impaired
person, regardless of their location, language or economic status, to gain
independence through access to computers.
www.nvaccess.org<http://www.nvaccess.org>

###

Design Science
Contact:

  Bruce Virga

  brucev at dessci.com<mailto:brucev at dessci.com>

+1 (562) 432-2920

  Design Science, Inc.

  140 Pine Avenue, 4th Floor

Long Beach, CA 90802

  USA

ETS Contact:

  Tom Ewing

tewing at ets.org<mailto:tewing at ets.org> <mailto:tewing at ets.org%0D>

  +1 (609)
683-2803

  Education Testing Service

  Princeton, NJ 08541-0001

USA

NV Access Contact:

  James Teh

jamie at nvaccess.org<mailto:jamie at nvaccess.org>

  +61 7 3149 3306

  NV
Access Limited

  10 Bunowen Street

  Ferny Grove

  QLD 4055

Australia
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