[BlindMath] Math Accessibility Question

[Todd Schwanke]

Joy:

Good morning.

Can you see if you can get some more info to post?
* Do they already have the exam set up to be web based?  Not sure if it is paper or web-based by default - http://www.math.montana.edu/undergrad/mplex.html
*  You mentioned that "The school ordered a program called Math Jax".  MathJax is something that generally needs to be added on the server side code and doesn't need to be ordered since it is open source.  Has MathJax already been implemented in MPlex?  If so, are they using a current version or linking to the central repository for the latest version?

Note that MathJax is a Javascript library and it is open source... and it is different than Java.

What is the student's preferred output?  Audio or Braille?  MathJax currently supports audio output, but not Braille quite yet.

This slide set provides some good background.
http://mathjax.github.io/MathJax-a11y/slides/ahg16.pdf
https://github.com/mathjax/MathJax-a11y

How the student would provide the answers to the questions may also need to be considered, depending on the interface for the exam.

Todd Schwanke
McBurney Disability Resource Center
Division of Student Life, UW-Madison



-----Original Message-----
From: BlindMath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Bruce&Joy Breslauer via BlindMath
Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2017 12:21 AM
To: blindmath at nfbnet.org
Cc: Bruce&Joy Breslauer <breslauerj at gmail.com>
Subject: [BlindMath] Math Accessibility Question

Hi.

 

I am new to the list.

 

I am the President of the NFB of Montana, and I was contacted last week by the Disabled Student Services manager at one of our universities regarding a blind student.  He is supposed to take the MPlex math test in order to determine which math class to enroll in.  The school ordered a program called Math Jax which is supposed to be compatible with JAWS, but the student says he can't get it to work for him.  The person who called me doesn't know if the student needs a Braille display to do the equations on or what.  I don't know if this is a technology compatibility question or a student education on how to use the software question.  I had a friend look up Math Jax on the web and they have a demo page, but JAWS wouldn't read the equation.  We didn't know if that was because the demo isn't set up with the accessibility
features enabled, or what the reason was.     

 

The student needs a way to decipher the equations, to do them, and to show his work so that they know whether or not he does them correctly.  I had a computer programmer friend of mine look up Math Jax, and it has a Java component which seems to interfere with the interaction between it and JAWS.
I would like to help this student.  Any ideas would be appreciated.  Thanks.
Does anyone know of another program that might work better with MPlex, or what program he might use successfully at the university?  

 

Joy Breslauer, President

National Federation of the Blind of Montana 

 

Live the life you want

 

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back.

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