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Re: Equations, MS Word 2007, PDFs, and alt text

for

From: Stephen L Noble
Date: Oct 1, 2010 3:51PM

It is possible to put accessible equations in PDF documents. The process
essentially embeds MathML, and Design Science had a proof of concept
over two years ago showing that the MathPlayer plug-in could read it.
The primary stumbling block at the moment is that the software used to
create PDF files needs to provide better utility for doing this. Andrew
Kirkpatrick from Adobe, who is also on this list, can explain more, as
he is aware of this need.

Best regards,

--Steve

------------------------------------
-- Steve Noble
Chair, National Technology Task Force
Learning Disabilities Association of America
<EMAIL REMOVED>
502-969-3088

--------------
Disclaimer: The opinions and comments made in email are those of the
author, and do not necessarily represent the official position of any
organization unless explicitly stated.


>>> Cliff Tyllick < <EMAIL REMOVED> > 10/1/2010 3:24 PM >>>
Steve, I appreciate the information. Unfortunately, the equations are
part of much longer documents -- documents that our audience expects to
download as PDFs or, if we made them available, Word files.

So html isn't a viable answer for us -- at least not for now.

Thanks!

Cliff

>>> On 9/26/2010 at 11:07 PM, in message
< <EMAIL REMOVED> >, Stephen L Noble
< <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
At the moment, there is no such thing as a natively accessible
equation
format within a Word document. However, you can take a Word document
with either Equation Editor 3.0, MathType, or the 2007 Microsoft Word
Equation editor equations, and export the document (using MathType's
MathPage function) as XHTML+MathML, which is accessible to screen
readers when using IE plus the MathPlayer plugin. Here are some
details
on that:
http://www.dessci.com/en/solutions/access/accessibilityfeatures.htm

One other alternative is that a blind user who knows TeX can use
MathType's TeX-toggle function. In other words, the sighted user can
use
a WYSIWYG equation editor to insert the equation in a Word document,
and
then the blind MathType user can hit the TeX-toggle command and all
the
equations get converted to TeX, which being simple keyboard characters
can be read by any screen reader. Not all blind users know TeX, of
course, so it is not a perfect solution. Exporting to XHTML+MathML
would
typically be considered the standard accessibility course for most
users.

Hope this helps,

--Steve Noble


------------------------------------
-- Steve Noble
Chair, National Technology Task Force
Learning Disabilities Association of America
<EMAIL REMOVED>
502-969-3088

--------------
Disclaimer: The opinions and comments made in email are those of the
author, and do not necessarily represent the official position of any
organization unless explicitly stated.


>>> Cliff Tyllick < <EMAIL REMOVED> > 9/24/2010 8:07 PM >>>
Our agency has recently moved from MS Word 2003 to MS Word 2007. A few
of our publications, produced in MS Word and published as PDFs created
with Acrobat Professional 9.0, include equations that are complex
enough
to require the Equation Editor. Generally, the documents that include
equations include *a lot* of equations.

In MS Word 2003, we were able to attach alt text to each of these
equations so people who use screen readers could understand the
content.

But in MS Word 2007, we find no way to attach alt text to an equation
-- as well as absolutely no documentation as to whether we need to do
anything to make these equations accessible!

It occurs to me that it's possible that the version of the Equation
Editor in MS Word 2007 might produce equations that screen readers can
read directly. (Perhaps MathML is embedded?) In other words, perhaps
we
don't have to do anything to make these equations accessible.

Does anyone know if that's the case? And, if not, how *do* we create
accessible equations in MS Word 2007?

Oh, and if possible, let's not have a debate about what an accessible
equation is -- at least, not in this thread. ;-)

Thanks!

- Cliff


Cliff Tyllick
Usability assessment and Web development coordinator
Agency Communications Division
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
512-239-4516
<EMAIL REMOVED>