[BlindMath] Current strategies regarding accessible mathematics

Sun Mar 13 19:51:27 UTC 2022

Hello David,

On the basis that the authors you're working with aren't using something obscure, there are really only two options being used widely in mathematics departments, being MS Word or LaTeX. I'd observe that there are also a growing, but still quite small, number of people using markdown, especially in Statistics departments, but that their eventual documents for distribution are often fed through a standard LaTeX process. There are also Open Office users, but I can't comment on whether that approach has any merit.

In brief, the delivery file/mechanism  is the critical point in the process. If the right file type is used, and built using current practices no legacy documents (MS Word in particular) the usefulness to the blind end-user is looking pretty good. The problem I have is that this brief summary might provide a false sense of security if the devil in the detail isn't noted.

I have learned that the harder it is to get things set up, the less likely it is that a solution will be taken up and therefore successful. I do not use any add-ons for my screen readers (JAWS and NVDA) because I want to see/feel the raw experience felt by users of my tools. In my view, providing add-on tools that only get used by screen reader users is the digital equivalent of asking every wheelchair user to carry around their portable ramps to get up small sets of steps.

A pdf is next to useless to us. Some attempts have and are being made to deliver a pdf that does have the right features to provide access but the consistency of the end-user experience with these tools is not yet good enough to suggest their implementation. That cuts out all documents made using a standard LaTeX process, including anyone starting with markdown. This has always been the case. While a pdf of a modern MS Word file is quite readable, the math content therein reduces its usefulness to us. There has never been any good logic for taking a file and making it a pdf and hoping access remains as good as for the source file.

MS Word documents differ markedly in their access. This depends heavily on the vintage of the document, and the version of MS Word that was in use at the time. Many authors using MS Word also had Math Type (which does create useful content) but other relied on Microsoft's equation editor (useless to us). More recent editions of MS Word have a new tool for creating equations and math content. I have not initiated a document in MS Word for more than five years, so I need to leave discussion of that space to others.

Markdown documents are best rendered into HTML and can therefore have the best use of the tools that generate readable math content used automatically. HTML is a very useful delivery file format because screen reader software accommodates HTML (as long as it conforms to W3CAG) well, including handling math content. Rendering of math content in MathML or MathJax (preferred in my opinion) creates access at the producer's end, not the consumer's end.

LaTeX files can be converted to HTML too, but most LaTeX authors don't know how to do it. Not all LaTeX documents come out well though. This variable outcome often depends on the level of customising being done by the author as against using standard practices. Add-on packages and user-defined commands are the two main sources of variable outcome in my experience. There are a variety of tools to take LaTeX source and create HTML. I've had good use from TeX4HT but others can point you to other solutions. Searching the list archive might also be a good source of information.

Finally, I'd suggest looking at 

@article{GodfreyLoots-JSE,
author={A. Jonathan R. Godfrey and M. Theodor Loots},
title={Advice from blind teachers on  how to teach statistics to blind students},
year={2015},
journal={Journal of Statistics Education},
month=Nov,
volume=23,
number=3,
url={http://www.amstat.org/publications/jse/v23n3/godfrey.pdf},
pages={1-28}
}
Even though we wrote this paper over five years ago, the rate of change in improved access to stats and maths classes has slowed in my opinion. There have been some really nice tools created, but if they don't get made part of mainstream tools, they are at risk of falling off the radar once their main proponents have run out of energy.

Happy to discuss further.
Jonathan

-----Original Message-----
From: BlindMath <blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of David Engebretson Jr. via BlindMath
Sent: Monday, 14 March 2022 7:42 am
To: blindmath at nfbnet.org
Cc: David Engebretson Jr. <accessible.engineering at gmail.com>
Subject: [BlindMath] Current strategies regarding accessible mathematics

I'm hoping to dig into the expertise on the list regarding what you do to ensure math is accessible to blind students, and current techniques to accessibly read mathematics with screen readers.

To explain:

*	I'd like to ensure our professors know how to produce accessible
documents with mathematics in them
*	And be able to show others how to read "accessible" mathematics
documents with screen readers

Thanks for your help!

David

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