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Re: Screen readers, math symbols, and Word

for

From: Ro
Date: Nov 17, 2010 12:39PM

Ooooh gotcha. I was thinking the equals sign, not the equal to sign.
Totally forgot about that one. I have no idea how that's rendered. I
see the problem now. Thanks!

~Randi and Guide Dog Jayden

In the Center of the Roof

http://raynaadi.blogspot.com/

On Nov 17, 2010, at 10:41 AM, Robin Maiorisi wrote:

> Randi,
>
> The problem is that if we use the symbol "Greater Than Or Equal To"
> which would be a left or right arrow with a line under it, when we
> test the Word document in JAWS, only "Greater Than" or "Less Than"
> is read. The "Equal To" portion is left out and this can be a
> problem for us.
>
> The alternative would be to create an object using the Equation
> editor and then adding alt text to that object, but since these
> mathematical symbols reside in a table, we are unsure of proper
> procedure.
>
> Does this help?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Robin A. Maiorisi
> Web Administrator
> Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
> Office of Compliance and Enforcement
> Remediation Division
> Technical Support Section
> <mime-attachment>
>
>
> >>> Ro < <EMAIL REMOVED> > 11/17/2010 11:35 AM >>>
> Do you mean that the < and > and = signs are announced as such? And if
> so, why is that an annoyance? Or is it because the symbols are used
> for something else? Voiceover announces them as greater than or less
> than if I'm reading code, but in other instances they aren't announced
> at all as in this email, but that's because of my preferred
> pronunciation settings. Guess I don't understand the problem?
>
> ~Randi and Guide Dog Jayden
>
> http://raynaadi.blogspot.com/
>
> On Nov 17, 2010, at 9:55 AM, Cliff Tyllick wrote:
>
> > One of our authors who has tested Word documents in JAWS 9 has
> > doscovered that the "greater than or equal to" symbol (Unicode
> > character 2265) is announced as "greater than."
> >
> > In some cases this might be a minor annoyance, but the difference is
> > important in documents that tell people how to comply with
> > environmental regulations. Is there a good solution to this problem?
> >
> > If not, we're thinking of just replacing the character with an
> > inline graphic of the same size with appropriate alt text. Thoughts?
> >
> > And is this just a JAWS thing, or do other screen readers do the
> same?
> >
> > Cliff
> >
> >
> > Cliff Tyllick
> > Usability assessment coordinator
> > Agency Communications Division
> > Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
> > 512-239-4516
> > <EMAIL REMOVED>
> >