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Re: MathML and simple maths content

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From: Isabel Holdsworth
Date: May 29, 2019 3:42AM

Hi Bim,

That's very interesting.

We're using the Wiris math editor for the web, and rather than
producing a graphic with alt text, it produces a styled equation whose
aria-hidden attribute is set to true, accompanied by a visually hidden
MathML expression.

It's the MathML expression that's causing problems for our customer,
since it isn't spoken in the same way, and often not at all, depending
on the browser/screenreader combination.

The graphic wouldn't be ideal for us either, for two reasons:

1. It's essentially an image of text which will pixellate when it's
zoomed up, unless they're using SVG.

2. VoiceOver speaks alt text as a single string, and I don't think
there's any way to interrogate it so as to break it down into its
component parts. This is usually fine for short texts like button
labels, but users need more granularity when reading complex maths
expressions.

But our customer might decide it's a better solution than what they've
got at the moment, so thank you.

Cheers, Isabel

On 29/05/2019, Bim Egan < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Hi Isabel,
>
> I did a little research on this for a client, and found the following that
> may be useful.
>
> WIRIS Math Type (equation editor and image producer:
> https://docs.wiris.com/en/mathtype/start
>
> It's engine not only produces an image, but also the alt text that I
> thought
> made the equation very clear.
>
> There's an example on one of their tutorial pages at:
> https://docs.wiris.com/en/mathtype/mathtype_desktop/basic_tutorials
>
> HTH,
>
> Bim
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf
> Of Isabel Holdsworth
> Sent: 29 May 2019 08:58
> To: WebAIM Discussion List
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] MathML and simple maths content
>
> Hi Lisa,
>
> I'm testing MathML with three browsers and getting inconsistent results.
> IE11 seems to work best, then Firefox, but JAWS and Chrome seem to provide
> the info to screenreaders sometimes and not others.
> It's frustrating, as I don't know what to suggest to our customer other
> than
> to ensure that JAWS is always paired with IE11.
>
> Cheers, Isabel
>
> On 28/05/2019, L Snider < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>> Hi Isabel,
>>
>> I would be curious to see what answers you get, as I know in EPUBs
>> best practice (right now) is to do MathML AND plain text summaries (or
>> whatever can be done in terms of explanations). I don't work with math
>> on websites, so would love to know more about whether the two mesh or
>> not.
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Lisa
>>
>> On Tue, May 28, 2019 at 8:34 AM Isabel Holdsworth
>> < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> Is it preferable to use MathML for all maths content, even simple
>>> additions, fractions, etc? Or would plain text ( 1 + 2 or 1/4 ) be
>>> acceptable?
>>>
>>> I get mixed results with MathML depending on which
>>> screenreader/browser combination I'm using, and sometimes I wonder if
>>> plain text would provide more consistent results.
>>>
>>> Thanks, Isabel
>>> >>> >>> archives at http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
>>> >>>
>> >> >> archives at http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
>> >>
> > > http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
> >
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