[BlindMath] JAWS or NVDA? Which is better with mathematical texts?

Wed Oct 30 21:45:18 UTC 2019

Tony/Saaqib,
This may not be answering your question directly, but may be of some use
for those that will be preparing your documents in the future. We are
having great success using Central Access Reader to create screen reader
accessible technical materials. It is a free program out of Central
Washington University. The program itself admits it is not 100% screen
reader accessible, but it makes fully accessible HTML documents with
embedded MathML. The HTML file output is configurable to JAWS/Voiceover or
NVDA. Input must be in the form of a MS Word document with math/equations
in either Equation Editor (what INFTYREADER outputs), or MathType.  The
result is readable with default browser/screen reader combinations on
MAC/iPhone/iPad/Windows, without any special plug ins or secondary
applications. It can also output mp3 audio files. Our students have found
the files fully accessible, and easy to navigate using the same keystrokes
they use to surf the internet. There is also an exceptionally useful
toolbar add-in for MS Word. Both these tools have become essential to our
accessible materials production workflow. Central Access Reader (CAR) is
free and installs on 64 bit Windows or MAC computers.

Share this information with anyone in the future who may assist in
preparing materials for you. Hope it helps.

*Sean Loraas*

*Alternative Text and Media|**Accessibility Technician*

Riverside Campus

*Office:* Building G 9154

*(512) 223-6034  *

sloraas at austincc.edu

*"No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an
uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit." *
*- Helen Keller*

*"Your words, attitudes and actions affect me more than my disability ever
will. **"**- Unknown*

On Wed, Oct 30, 2019 at 7:00 AM <blindmath-request at nfbnet.org> wrote:

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>    1. Re: JAWS or NVDA? Which is better with mathematical texts?
>       (Tony Malykh)
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Tony Malykh <anton.malykh at gmail.com>
> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics <
> blindmath at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Saaqib Mahmuud <saaqib1978 at yahoo.co.in>
> Bcc:
> Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2019 13:02:00 -0700
> Subject: Re: [BlindMath] JAWS or NVDA? Which is better with mathematical
> texts?
> Hi,
>
> I can tell you about math support in NVDA. I don't know much about Jaws
> - maybe others will comment about that.
>
> NVDA supports reading formulas in two ways. There's MathMLReader - a
> separate program you'd need to install, but NVDA knows how to interact
> with it. And there's also Access8Math add-on, which is roughly
> comparable. But Both these options will only work if the formula is in
> MathML format. For example, you can read formulas on Wikipedia, they all
> seem to be accessible.
>
> Now the bad news is that formulas in PDF files are typically not
> accessible. In my experience, screenreaders can read you all the parts
> of the formula, but the formatting is lost, which in practice means you
> can guess the formatting of the simpler ones, but more complicated
> formulas turn into gibberish. I have heard other people using program
> called InftyReader, which can OCR your PDF document and turn formulas
> into a readable format, but this program is pretty expensive....
>
> As for DJVu format, as far as I know it is not accessible. You might be
> able to OCR it into some accessible format using the same InftyReader
> for example.
>
>
> For creating math content, I know you can use LaTex (MikTex), since it
> is plain-text format, you can use any text editor for that.
>
>
> HTH
>
> --Tony
>
>
>
> On 10/29/2019 1:39 AM, Saaqib Mahmuud via BlindMath wrote:
> > Hi BlindMath mates? Hope you're fine.
> > My name is Saaqib Mahmood, and I am a visually impaired (i.e. partially
> sighted) person from Abbottabad, Pakistan; I have got an MPhil degree in
> Mathematics and work as Assistant Professor at a mainstream government
> college.
> > Although I at present can read printed materials and ebooks in PDF or
> DJVU format by turning on High Contrast (Black), I still need to be able to
> use JAWS or NVDA properly in creating and accessing mathematical materials
> in case my eyesight deteriotates too much in future.
> > Besides, just yesterday, a student of the MSc in Mathematics program of
> the University of Peshawar contacted me and told me that he is losing the
> ability to read print as his eyesight is declining steadily.
> > In this backdrop, I request the help and support of the BlindMath
> community and enable people like me and that student to better access
> mathematics books using the commonly available computer screen reading
> software programs such as JAWS and NVDA.
> >
> > My first query is which of these two programs (i.e. JAWS and NVDA)
> allows better accessibility when creating or accessing mathematics content?
> > How accessible using either JAWS or NVDA is  the task of creating
> mathematical content using MikeTex, for example?
> >
> >
> > And, how accessible is each one of these programs when accessing
> mathematical content using programs such as Adobe Acrobat Reader (for PDF
> documents) and WinDjView (for DJVU files)?
> > I hope the members of the BlindMath community will take time answering
> my queries in detail.
> >
> > Regards.
> >
> > Sincerely,
> >
> > Saaqib Mahmood,
> > Assistant Professor of Mathematics,
> >
> > Government Postgraduate College No. 1,
> > Abbottabad, PAKISTAN
> > Phone: 0092 334 541 7958 (for mobile and WhatsApp calls & messages)
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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