WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: ALT text for equations

for

From: John E Brandt
Date: Aug 18, 2014 10:12AM

I attended a webinar last year that dealt with the whole issue of
accessibility instructional materials and mathematics. Basically it made my
head explode.

The whole use of images or MathML is only one part of the accessibility
issue. The bigger issue is related to the actual "reading" of the equation.
Not only is there a knack for reading the equation correctly so it makes
sense from a listening perspective, there are apparently multiple terms for
the same symbol and regional vernacular to some of these. In the webinar
they demonstrated a math symbol for a square root that was called something
different depending on where you lived in the United States! In the webinar
they also recommended working with math teachers or science teachers to make
sure you were doing this correctly.

Add to this the fact that in HTML, different browsers/OS combinations will
show the same equation using MathML differently and you are far from having
a standardized situation.

The final sense was that things were getting better, but were still not
perfect.

Here are some resources:

http://aim.cast.org/experience/acrosscurriculum/math/math_and_images#.U_Ilgf
ldXh4
http://aim.cast.org/learn/e-resources/accessibility_resources/stem#.U_Ilrfld
Xh4
http://aim.cast.org/experience/technologies/mathml_nimas#.U_IlyPldXh4


~j

John E. Brandt
jebswebs: accessible and universal web design,
development and consultation
<EMAIL REMOVED>
207-622-7937
Augusta, Maine, USA

@jebswebs