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Re: Math and the most accessible way to mark it up

for

From: Peter Krautzberger
Date: Sep 13, 2018 12:40AM

> Is there a newer and/or more robust way to express math that works
> well with more access technologies than MathML seems to?

While I'm biased (since I managed the project when this was developed),
MathJax's Accessibility Extensions [1] leverage MathJax's sister
project, Speech-Rule-Engine [2] (originally part of ChromeVox) providing
the best available voicing and exploration on all screenreaders (no
MathML needed); SRE is also currently implementing Nemeth Braille
support.

The developers are also active on the W3C MathOnWeb Community
Group [3] (another disclaimer: I co-chair the CG) to further improve
the necessary standards and technologies.

Best regards,
Peter.

[1] https://docs.mathjax.org/en/latest/misc/accessibility-features.html
[2] https://github.com/zorkow/speech-rule-engine
[3] https://w3c.github.io/mathonwebpages/


2018-09-12 23:37 GMT+02:00 Jim Allan < <EMAIL REMOVED> >:

> Screen readers vary in their ability to read special symbols. See this
> thread on webaim
> https://webaim.org/discussion/mail_thread?thread=6265
>
> JAWS has a Dictionary Manager that you may be able to add special symbols
> NVDA has something similar
> https://www.nvaccess.org/files/nvda/documentation/userGuide.html#
> SpeechDictionaries
>
> On Wed, Sep 12, 2018 at 4:07 PM Isabel Holdsworth <
> <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I'm a bit late to the math party, but we're struggling to figure out
> > the best way to mark up math operations like fractions, indices, Greek
> > letters, and even the Minus sign.
> >
> > We have the Wiris MathML editor plugged into one of our text editors,
> > and it seems to do a really good job of encoding raw characters into
> > MathML. For the most part it works well with JAWS, but NVDA misses
> > some vital information, such as the "divided by" between the numerator
> > and denominator of a fraction, or the "to the power of" between a
> > number and its index. And VoiceOver isn't speaking anything at all for
> > some reason, although it's apparently supposed to work with "simple"
> > math expressions.
> >
> > Is there a newer and/or more robust way to express math that works
> > well with more access technologies than MathML seems to?
> >
> > As always, I'd really appreciate your thoughts on this. Accessibility
> > is becoming a higher priority in the company I work for, and I want us
> > to get it right first time wherever possible.
> >
> > Cheers, Isabel
> > > > > > > > > >
>
>
> --
> Jim Allan, Accessibility Coordinator
> Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired
> 1100 W. 45th St., Austin, Texas 78756
> voice 512.206.9315 fax: 512.206.9452 http://www.tsbvi.edu/
> "We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." McLuhan, 1964
> > > > >