[BlindMath] Assistance with accessibility in Math programs

[Akashdeep Bansal]

Hi,

Please find the XRCVC's accessible book production standard 1.0 at below
link
http://www.xrcvc.org/docs/XRCVC_s_Accessible_Book_Production_Standards_1.0.pdf

It has a very good description of how to produce accessible STEM books.

On Thu, Jun 7, 2018 at 3:51 AM, Łukasz Grabowski via BlindMath <
blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> Dear Melissa,
>
> I think the most important thing is that the people at your maths
> department should be made aware that they ight need to change some of
> their ways (i.e. the workflows which they use), as it's simply not the
> case that every single end product can be made accessible when no
> thought was put into accessibility during the preparation stage.
>
> Havving said that few quick thoughts:
> 1) the vector fields which you attached could be suitable for a tactile
> graphic. Make the arrows 2-5 times sparser and it should be ok (easy
> to do for whoever preapred them in the first place).
>
> 2) the tables used in problems is a silly nuissance - just speak with
> whoever uses them and think together about another way of presenting
> the content. There's obviously nothing there which necessitates using
> any particular software solution, it could be just as well presented to
> a student as a simple text file with no loss of educational value.
>
> 3) 3D plots require much more careful thought. There's certainly no
> automatic way. The lecturer has to think and tell you what is important
> in a given plot. For example I take it that in the middle plot the only
> two important things are that a) the function has two maxima, and b)
> there is a saddle point between them. All the other details of the
> picture are most likely completely irrelevant. As such in this case you
> can even prepare the graph out of clay etc. - as long as it's about
> conveying general concepts (minima, maxima, stationary points), simple
> models should easily convey the meaning and help the student to
> internalise those concepts.
>
> 4) video and image in assessment - well obviously this has to be
> redesigned depending on specific details of what they are used for..
>
> Best,
> Lukasz
>
> On Wed, 6 Jun 2018 15:05:05 -0700
> Melissa Verschage via BlindMath <blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
> > Hello.
> >
> > I am new to this group. I was referred to the group during the recent
> > AHEAD accessibility conference in late May.
> >
> > My campus is creating accessibility standards for online courses. We
> > are working with our Math department to determine what steps they
> > need to take to make their courses and course materials accessible.
> > Is anyone working on accessibility standards related to math
> > content/courses/programs? I have a couple of challenges we are trying
> > to address and would love some input from anyone who has gone through
> > any accessibility steps. A few topics of concern include:
> >
> > *Tables used for problems*
> > Tables are used for data, but this one has cells to use for answers.
> >
> > ​
> >
> > *3D Modeling Plots*
> > These are used in calculus and are very visual in nature. Some of
> > these are very difficult to describe. Has anyone dealt with this?
> >
> >
> > *Vector Fields*
> > More visual graphs that are difficult to describe. Has anyone dealt
> > with these?
> >
> >
> > Video or Images in Assessments
> > There are some assessments that show a video of a graph building or an
> > image of a graph. Students are to identify what is happening or what
> > it represents so providing audio descriptions or alt text defeats the
> > purpose of the assessment. Has anyone encountered this situation? Any
> > insights you can share?
> > ​
> > ​I have a few additional  items that I need to address. Please reach
> > out to me if you have any insight on these items or if you are
> > interested in collaborating on any of them.
> >
> > I appreciate any help I can get.
> >
> > Kindest regards,
> > Melissa
> >
> >
>
>
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-- 
Thanks and Regards
Akashdeep Bansal
Research Scholar (PhD)
Amar Nath and Shashi Khosla School of Information Technology
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016 INDIA
web: http://www.cse.iitd.ac.in/~akashdeep/
<http://web.iitd.ernet.in/~anz168049/>