[Blindtlk] [nabs-l] Math-to-Speech technology project

Tue May 31 22:54:42 UTC 2011

 ---- Original Message ------
From: "Loew, Ruth" <rloew at ETS.ORG
Subject: [nabs-l] Math-to-Speech technology project
Date sent: Thu, 26 May 2011 09:27:56 -0700

New Math-to-Speech Technologies to Help Blind and Visually 
Impaired Students Master Mathematics

Princeton, N.J.  (May 24, 2011) -
Educational Testing Service (ETS) and Design Science have 
announced they are working jointly to modify MathType(tm) and 
MathPlayer(tm), so that classroom materials, tests and other 
documents containing mathematical content may be clearly spoken 
by computers.  This new math-to-speech technology will provide 
students who are blind or have other visual impairments the tools 
they need to learn, practice, and take math and science tests on 
a more equal footing with their classroom peers.
Some of the country's leading subject-matter experts and 
developers of assistive technology for students who are blind or 
visually impaired will assist on the project which begins July 1, 
2011, and is supported by a $1.5 million Institute of Education 
Sciences grant.
"Existing assistive technology that provides synthetic speech for 
electronic text does at best a limited job of making math 
accessible for this group of students," explains Lois Frankel, an 
ETS Assessment Specialist and the leader of the effort.  "The 
current technology falls short because it generally does not 
'know' how to describe mathematical expressions, especially in a 
way that provides access to their nonlinear structure.
"ETS and Design Science will work together to enhance MathPlayer, 
the tool that voices the math encoded in MathML, so that it 
sounds more like what students - particularly those in Algebra I 
- are used to hearing," Frankel says.  "We also plan to work on a 
number of customizations to MathType, including a feature to 
allow teachers and other users to select how mathematical 
expressions are described.  For example, they could select 
whether the machine says 'four over five' or 'four fifths.' 
Another customization we plan to add is keyboard navigation that 
allows blind or visually impaired users to go back and replay 
voiced segments in mathematically meaningful 'chunks.' Our goal 
is to provide students and teachers with a better system for 
voicing mathematical notation that includes some truly useful 
functionality."
"It has been a long-term Design Science goal to make math 
accessible, and our team has been working hard at it for over six 
years," said Neil Soiffer, Senior Scientist at Design Science.  
"It's a great opportunity to be partnering with an organization 
the stature and importance of ETS, to push the state-of-the-art 
forward."
Working with Frankel and Soiffer on the effort are ETS Assessment 
Specialist Beth Brownstein, Research Scientist Eric Hansen, and 
Senior Research Scientist Cara Laitusis.  Among the other 
organizations and consultants who will take part in the project 
are:
*

De Witt & Associates, specializes in accessibility training, 
learning systems and support, and will provide advice on the 
implementation of MathML accessibility tools and assist in the 
development of training modules for students and teachers.
*       GW Micro, a leading firm in the adaptive technology 
industry, will modify its Window-Eyes screen reader software to 
work seamlessly with the tools developed by the project.
*       Jim Allan, the accessibility coordinator and webmaster 
for the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
*       Maylene Bird, a teacher of mathematics to visually 
impaired students at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually 
Impaired.
*       Christine Hinton, a Program Development Specialist for 
the New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired, 
will help recruit student participants from inclusive schools in 
New Jersey.
*       Gaylen Kapperman, a professor with a visual disability, 
with specialization in research and development projects 
pertaining to mathematics instruction and assistive technology 
used by individuals who are blind or are visually impaired.
*       Abraham Nemeth, the author of The Nemeth Braille Code for 
Mathematics and Science Notation and a blind expert in making 
mathematics accessible to blind individuals.
*       Susan Osterhaus, a secondary mathematics teacher and 
statewide math accessibility expert at the Texas School for the 
Blind and Visually Impaired.
"The criteria for success in this project will be three-fold," 
explains Marisa Farnum, Vice President of Assessment Development 
at ETS.  "First, will students using the tailored tools over the 
status quo be better able to solve algebra problems at an 
appropriate level? And, are they better able to correctly 
identify the structure of algebra-level math expressions when 
using the tools? Second, will math teachers be able to use the 
authoring tools developed by this project to quickly and easily 
create math materials that are accessible to their students with 
visual impairments? And finally, do the teachers and students who 
participate as subjects in these development efforts find the 
tools provided usable and convenient?"
About ETS
At nonprofit ETS, we advance quality and equity in education for 
people worldwide by creating assessments based on rigorous 
research.  ETS serves individuals, educational institutions and 
government agencies by providing customized solutions for teacher 
certification, English language learning, and elementary, 
secondary and post-secondary education, as well as conducting 
education research, analysis and policy studies.  Founded in 
1947, ETS develops, administers and scores more than 50 million 
tests annually - including the TOEFL(r) and TOEIC(r) tests, the 
GRE(r) tests and The Praxis Series(tm) assessments - in more than 
180 countries, at over 9,000 locations worldwide.  
www.ets.org<http://www.ets.org/>.

About Design Science
Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Long Beach, California, 
Design Science develops software used by educators, scientists 
and publishing professionals, including MathType, Equation Editor 
in Microsoft Office, MathFlow, MathDaisy and MathPlayer, to 
communicate on the web and in print.  For more information please 
visit www.dessci.com<http://www.dessci.com/>.

Ruth C.  Loew, Ph.D.
Assistant Director
Office of Disability Policy, ETS
phone: 609-683-2984
fax: 609-683-2220

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