The Path to Accessible Math Neil Soiffer Design

Outline • The Good • Accessible Math • Math. ML & Standards • Authoring Tools • Renders • DAISY • The Bad – Limitations • The Ugly – Making it Work • The Discussion…

Accessible Math • What • Expressions , Graphs, Figures, Animations, Manipulatives • Where • Textbooks, homework, articles, work • Web, MS Word, PDF, ebooks • Why • Every day, every student takes math • It is one of the 3 "R"s • It’s the Law…

Accessible Math Requirements • Blindness • Audio description • Navigation • Braille math translation • Low Vision • Font size and color control • Print-related Learning Disabilities • Synchronization of highlighting with speech

Math as Images • What’s Wrong with Images • Math can and is spoken many different ways • Alt text is static • Pronunciation: “a plus b” • No magnification, navigation, braille, or sync highlighting • Math. ML to the rescue…

Math. ML Example Presentation <math> <mroot> <mi> x </mi> <mn> 3 </mn> </mroot> </math> Content <math> <apply> <root/> <degree> <cn> 3 </cn> <degree/> <ci> x </ci> </apply> </math>

Math. ML In Standards • Math. ML 2 (2003); Math. ML 3 (2010? ) • Draft@ www. w 3. org/TR/Math. ML 3 • Doc. Book • DAISY (Digital Talking Books) • NIMAS: K-12 Textbooks • e. Books: e. Pub (OEBPS) • PDF (? !) • PDF/UA support for Math • HTML 5 (2012? ? ? )

Authoring • Math. Type —Word, i. Work, … • Web. EQ — Java-based Math. ML editor • Math. Flow—Arbor. Text, XMeta. L, XMAX • Open Office • Scientific Notebook • Te. X→Math. ML —Tt. M, Te. X 4 ht, La. Te. XML • Mathematica, Maple, Math. CAD

Design Science Authoring Tools • Math. Type • WYSIWYG • Te. X editing • Works with • Word • Power. Point • i. Work ’ 09 • Wikipedia…

Web. EQ & Math. Flow Editor • Single Equations • Web. EQ • Content MML • XML Editors • Math. Flow • Arbortext • XMeta. L • SDK – suite of tools for custom apps

Math. Type & Math. Page • Math. Page for Word • Word-> XHTML • Math. Player • Display • Interaction • Accessible

Works in Popular Browsers IE+Math. Player Firefox

Math. Player Accessibility Features • Display • Matches font size and color • Allows magnification of expressions • Synchronized highlighting • Speech • Supports multiple speech styles • Supports multiple languages • Supports prosody (pauses, rate, …) • Braille • Supports multiple Math. ML-to-braille translators • Dots. Plus (emboss to Tiger printers)

Demo Time • Word+Math. Type • Math. Page to get XHTML+Math. Player • Math. Player Accessibility

Math. Player Multilingual Speech • Translations • Usable: • Chinese, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Swedish • In Process • Bulgarian, Czech, Dutch, Korean • What it takes to do a translation • ~150 words + 74 descriptions • 3, 000 Unicode characters (~500 needed)

DAISY • DAISY is a highly accessible format • Collection of files • Audio, Text, or a combination • Contains a Math. ML extension • Used by Other Standards • NIMAS is a subset of DAISY • Part of e. Pub (ebooks)

Word & “Save as DAISY” • Version 2: Full DAISY book • Uses Math. Type • Uses Math. Daisy • Demo… • Edit (WYSWYG, Te. X) • SAD • Also Open Office Add-in

The Bad: DAISY • Only two visual players support Math • gh Player • Dolphin Easy. Reader v 4 • (+)Works with all Audio only players • Not much technical material in DAISY • Multiple files complicates delivery

The Bad: Math. ML on the Web • Not Universally Supported • Doesn’t work in Safari, Chrome • Doesn’t work in IE w/o Math. Player • Accessible only w/Math. Player or Fire. Vox • Fonts • Java. Script and/or Greasemonkey-like solutions coming

The Ugly: Math. ML on the Web • Serving XHTML • application/xhtml+xml • Use. xht as suffix • dessci. com/en/products/mathplayer/author/creatingsites. htm • UMM – PHP server solution • Math. ML-aware browser → Math. ML • Otherwise → Generate & Send Image • GTKMath. View (free) or Math. Flow SDK • umm. sourceforge. net

Summary • Authoring: Math. Type, Math. Flow, … • Works with DAISY tools • Display: • Math. Player, Firefox, • gh Player, Easy. Reader • Flexible Speech & Braille Generation • Math. ML used in lots of places • Project SMART: ‘Math. ML is good’