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Re: MathML and simple maths content

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From: Isabel Holdsworth
Date: May 29, 2019 3:42AM

Hi Bim,

That's very interesting.

We're using the Wiris math editor for the web, and rather than
producing a graphic with alt text, it produces a styled equation whose
aria-hidden attribute is set to true, accompanied by a visually hidden
MathML expression.

It's the MathML expression that's causing problems for our customer,
since it isn't spoken in the same way, and often not at all, depending
on the browser/screenreader combination.

The graphic wouldn't be ideal for us either, for two reasons:

1. It's essentially an image of text which will pixellate when it's
zoomed up, unless they're using SVG.

2. VoiceOver speaks alt text as a single string, and I don't think
there's any way to interrogate it so as to break it down into its
component parts. This is usually fine for short texts like button
labels, but users need more granularity when reading complex maths
expressions.

But our customer might decide it's a better solution than what they've
got at the moment, so thank you.

Cheers, Isabel

On 29/05/2019, Bim Egan < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Hi Isabel,
>
> I did a little research on this for a client, and found the following that
> may be useful.
>
> WIRIS Math Type (equation editor and image producer:
> https://docs.wiris.com/en/mathtype/start
>
> It's engine not only produces an image, but also the alt text that I
> thought
> made the equation very clear.
>
> There's an example on one of their tutorial pages at:
> https://docs.wiris.com/en/mathtype/mathtype_desktop/basic_tutorials
>
> HTH,
>
> Bim
> -------------
> Bim Egan
> Skype phone: 01223 96 87 96
> Personal Email: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> Skype ID: bim.accessequals
>
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> ----------------------------------------
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