WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: ALT text for equations

for

From: steve.noble@louisville.edu
Date: Aug 18, 2014 7:48AM


If you are talking about mainstream use in HTML, common practice now is to use MathJax: http://www.mathjax.org/
Of course, if you are creating alternative format materials for individual student use, you can use DAISY+MathML. MathJax is generally what is used these days if you are creating a general use or university website, since it gets around the problem of supporting multiple platforms/browsers. MathJax pages can still serve MathML to browsers/AT that can use the code.
PDF is more difficult. The PDF/UA specification supports MathML, but there is really no simple way to get the MathML into a PDF without hand coding every expression. There's a bit of a discussion here, though: https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1460948

Hope that helps,

--Steve Noble
<EMAIL REMOVED>
502-969-3088
http://louisville.academia.edu/SteveNoble


From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [ <EMAIL REMOVED> ] on behalf of Liko, Todd [ <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: Monday, August 18, 2014 8:02 AM
To: ' <EMAIL REMOVED> '
Subject: [WebAIM] ALT text for equations

Hello all.

I have researched this topic online and found older WebAIM threads. The information I have found thus far indicates there is not a lot of support for making equations accessible, short of writing it out in ALT text.

I am curious how others are dealing with this, not only for HTML and in PDF documents as well.

_______
Todd Liko
Communications Advisor | Conseiller en communications
Web Services | Services Web
Communications and Marketing | Communications et Marketing
427 Avenue Laurier Avenue West (AEAD), Ottawa ON K1A 0N5
427 Avenue Laurier Ouest (AEAD), Ottawa (Ontario) K1A 0N5
e-mail / courriel: <EMAIL REMOVED> <mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> >
telephone / téléphone: 613-949-9425 | fax / télécopieur: 613-949-2386
blackberry: 613-796-6375
Government of Canada | Gouvernement du Canada