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Re: Access and Online Math Classes

for

From: Andrew Kirkpatrick
Date: Aug 15, 2001 7:58AM

I would add that NCAM has been dealing with this issue in its PIVoT project
(creating an online Physics resource site with MIT). You might want to talk
to Geoff Freed ( <EMAIL REMOVED> ) about his experience dealing with this
issue.
PIVoT project: http://curricula2.mit.edu/pivot/
NCAM's PIVoT site: http://ncam.wgbh.org/webaccess/pivot
Andrew
On 8/14/01 5:12 PM, Reidy Brown ( <EMAIL REMOVED> ) wrote:
> John,
>
> You can find information on this in the National Center for Accessible
> Media's online guide "Making Educational Software Accessible: Design
> Guidelines Including Math and Science Solutions," which is at
> http://ncam.wgbh.org/cdrom/guideline/.
>
> The University of Toronto's SNOW group is also doing some interesting work
> in this area, and that information can be found at
> http://nide.snow.utoronto.ca/MathML/ (Taras Kowaliw, at
> <EMAIL REMOVED> , is the contact person for that project).
>
> Unfortunately, though, this is still a challenging problem. Although there
> are several authoring tools that allow users to create MathML markup quickly
> and easily (some of which also generate images of the equations as well--
> take a look at WebEQ at http://www.dessci.com/webmath/webeq/features.stm), I
> don't believe that screen readers and browsers can correctly interpret the
> results-- yet.
>
> However, if you create content that contains a structured representation of
> the math (e.g., MathML), you are in a good position when user agents (screen
> readers and browsers) support MathML-- your content will then "become"
> accessible with no further effort on your part.
>
> Good luck,
> Reidy
>
> -------------------------------------------
> Reidy Brown
> Accessibility Coordinator/
> Sr. Software Engineer
> Blackboard, Inc.
> 1899 L. St., NW, 5th Floor
> Washington, DC 20036
> (202) 463-4860 x236
> -------------------------------------------
>
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