[BlindMath] Latest version of MathType with the MathCAT NVDA addon

[Neil Soiffer]

Haylee,

To answer your question, here is a little technical background that sets up
the answer. There are two underlying accessibility standards on Windows:
the older MSAA and the newer UIA (UIA is over a decade old). Screen readers
use those standards to grab information from programs.

The problem with math in Word is that MathType is accessed via MSAA and the
builtin Word editor is accessed via UIA. I think it was in 2021 (I might be
off by a year or more), NVDA moved their experimental support of UIA into
the main product. This meant that builtin Word equations are now accessible
and editing math expressions in their editor is also accessible IF the
right UIA settings were set in NVDA. Setting them so the builtin editor
works causes the MathType editor to not be accessible (you get the
"graphic" message) and vice-versa.

To change settings, go to NVDA's Advanced settings and see what the value
of "Use UI Automation to access Microsoft Word document controls" is. For
me in NVDA v2023.1, "Default (Where Suitable)" and "Only when necessary"
causes NVDA to read MathType math but not MS native Math. When "Always" is
selected, you get MS Math but not MathType math. I think the internal
workings of "Default" have changed with different versions of NVDA, so your
experience with the default value may differ depending on the NVDA version.

I hope this helps,

Neil Soiffer


On Tue, Aug 15, 2023 at 8:36 AM Haylee Mota via BlindMath <
blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I am a student who uses MathType to do  assignments for my classes. I
> recently had to install MathType on a new computer, and sense then, I
> cannot get accessible math. When I use the alt backslash command to toggle
> between TeX and MathType equations, MathType produces a Math 7.0 graphic.
> No MathML is produced, so I cannot read the equation with NVDA and the
> MathCAT addon.
>
> Has anyone had this problem with the latest version of MathType, or does
> anyone know what could potentially be happening and how to fix the issue?
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Haylee
>
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