[BlindMath] Current strategies regarding accessible mathematics

Sun Mar 13 20:23:03 UTC 2022

Yikes.

So, as far as I can see from your response (and thank you for the detail in
your response):

* there's no one preferred method of authoring accessible mathematics for
blind folks
* there's no one, preferred,  way to accessibly read mathematics with a
screen reader

I'm not sure why but I'm hesitant to share 7 year old documents/studies with
our professors. Are there studies that are recent regarding authoring and
viewing LaTeX? I'm assuming LaTeX is the best way for blind folks to access
mathematics...

Thanks again,
David

-----Original Message-----
From: BlindMath <blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Jonathan Godfrey
via BlindMath
Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2022 12:51 PM
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
<blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Jonathan Godfrey <A.J.Godfrey at massey.ac.nz>
Subject: Re: [BlindMath] Current strategies regarding accessible mathematics

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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