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Re: MathML and simple maths content

for

From: Isabel Holdsworth
Date: May 29, 2019 7:38AM

Thanks guys. This is less than encouraging, and very frustrating,
especially for organisations in the process of moving paper assessment
online. I'm stumped as to what I can suggest.

Cheers, Isabel

On 29/05/2019, Birkir R. Gunnarsson < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> MathML support is spotty/inconsistent and sometimes downright missing.
> Kepe inmind that IE11 is eventually going to g away, probably in a
> matter of years, so we, as a community must focus on
> Chrome/Firefox/Edge (which will run on Chomium).
> In 2011 I had a short stint with Design Science, makers of Mathplayer
> (wich renders MathML into speech), but even then there lack of user
> agent support was a big problem for MathML. My understanding is that
> it's not improved, but we have nothing else to replace it.
> So I'd recommend going with MathML for now and then file issues with
> browsers/screen reader vendors to draw attention to the problem with
> missing MathML support.
>
>
>
> On 5/29/19, L Snider < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>> Hi Isabel,
>>
>> Sounds like it is the same as EPUB in terms of the issues with MathML.
>> Sorry, I made an error in my first email, the best practice is to do
>> MathML
>> and an image with alt text. My brain was tired! Sometimes people did
>> text,
>> but only for the most simple math (and even then image would be best
>> practice).
>>
>> From my limited research about 5 months ago, it is still the best one
>> right
>> now. However, people are working on different solutions, as this has been
>> an issue since it came out.
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Lisa
>>
>> On Wed, May 29, 2019 at 4:43 AM Isabel Holdsworth
>> < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
>> wrote:
>>
>>> 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
>>> >
>>> > Coordinator: Describe Online
>>> > W: www.describe-online.com
>>> > E: <EMAIL REMOVED>
>>> > ----------------------------------------
>>> > Partner: AccessEquals
>>> > W: www.accessequals.com
>>> > E: <EMAIL REMOVED>
>>> >