[Blindmath] Questions Regarding Formula Reading With JAWS

[Lynn Reed]

This is the biggest problem for visually impaired people using screen readers for math. There is a beta test going on for a math access program. If you can find the answers to these questions, in a user friendly way, I might add, you would be akin to a god in the visually impaired world! 

What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.
----Ralph Waldo Emerson

> On Mar 18, 2015, at 6:50 PM, Trevor Attenberg via Blindmath <blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi Blind Math List,
> 
> As the subject line suggests, I am interested in relatively simple means of
> reading formulas with JAWS. Unlike many emailers whose messages I explored
> in archives, I am not interested in editing formulas into LaTeX or the like
> at this point. I am however curious how one would non-visually comprehend
> formulas that appear only as graphics in an MS Word, PDF, or HTML file. For
> instance, in an attempt to gain greater understanding of ecologically
> relevant entropy usage, I ran across an article from Jost (2006). The
> article contained tables I could largely comprehend-the sort I could easily
> compose; but whole formulas in the article were all determined to be
> shapefile graphics by JAWS; thus I could not fully understand the principal
> messages of the paper. Such a thing has happened to me many times. What
> would one do in such a scenario, when there is an ad hoc scientific query
> that requires understanding of formulas? One idea I've tried is to run the
> entire document through an OCR recognition program (I have OpenBook with its
> "Freedom Import Printer" on my machine); but the results are usually far
> from satisfying. In addition, I do not have JAWS scripted or set up to
> recognize all the appropriate symbology: Greek letters etc. Actually, I've
> never monkeyed with JAWS scripts before. Would anyone here be able to advise
> on how to execute this for mathematically relevant symbols. If there are
> clear materials and directions for this online, feel free to direct me. 
> 
> Finally; I know there's been much talk of LaTeX on this list going back a
> long way. Perhaps I've been living in a cave; but I've only just come to
> understand (thank you Wikipedia) that LaTex is a markup language for
> representing mathematical content; apparently for the principal purpose of
> aesthetics and ease of visual comprehension. For those of us with no current
> need to edit LaTeX files, is there a simple means of translating LaTeX
> rendered formulas, such as those so often presented on websites like
> Wikipedia? I saw the Website "latex-access", witch directed me to "SVN"
> related websites for scripts. For one thing, I do not know what SVN is;
> another thing is I was not sure what to look for once I clicked on the
> links; nor was I assured that the "On the Fly" tools I thought might help
> were here. It is also not entirely clear if what this latex-access website
> discusses is quite what I'm looking for; though it sounds like it is and
> more. I deeply apologize if this is all old-hat and juvenalia to most of
> you. 
> 
> If this does indeed sound like topics that have been thoroughly covered on
> the list before, or it is below most of us; do then contact me off list
> (tattenberg at gmail.com) , and consider directing me to an archival discussion
> on these exact issues.
> 
> One more thing: has the Blind User's list been used as yet? I haven't gotten
> any messages in my inbox since signing up; and I do indeed have a couple R
> questions; perhaps I will need to poke through my ample spam collection.
> 
> Best to all of you; especially if you read this far!
> 
> Trevor A           
> 
> 
> 
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