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Re: MathJax and NVDA

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From: Noble, Stephen
Date: Mar 17, 2023 1:10PM

You'll need to load the MathCAT add-on to NVDA: MathCAT (nvda-project.org)<https://addons.nvda-project.org/addons/MathCAT.en.html>

MathCAT is the new replacement for MathPlayer. One you add MathCAT to NVDA, it will read any MathML, regardless if it is native MathML in the web page or if MathJax is used to render LaTeX.

Hope that helps,

--Steve Noble
<EMAIL REMOVED>
502-969-3088
From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > on behalf of Elizabeth Thomas < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Sent: Friday, March 17, 2023 2:49 PM
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Subject: [WebAIM] MathJax and NVDA

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Another math question. First, my disclaimer: I specialize in document accessibility. I know HTML, but 90% of my time is spent on document accessibility (mostly PDFs). I do not know JavaScript…at all.
I wrote some equations in LaTeX in our CMS and am using MathJax to display them on the page. JAWS “sees” the equations and reads them correctly. However, when NVDA gets to the math, it just says “clickable” but won’t open the math menu MathJax provides or read any of the expression. I enabled the assistive-Mml extension through the menu options in MathJax (though I think this might now be enabled by default), but NVDA is still not reading it. I did some searching and everything says NVDA needs MathPlayer to read MathML. Wiris, however, says MathPlayer only works on obsolete browsers so I don’t think I should tell people using NVDA to download MathPlayer.
The questions:
1. Should NVDA read the equations and I just can’t get it to work because I’m not a screen reader user and thus don’t know how to do it?
2. If 1 is true, should I provide instructions for people using NVDA on the page so that they can read the math (for those who maybe don’t often read math and thus might not know how to do it).
3. If 1 is false, does NVDA not read MathML ever and I need another way to present the math to people using NVDA (e.g., the equations written in words using some standard math syntax and grammar)?
Thanks in advance. Also, to follow up on my previous math question about unicode entities for negative numbers, I haven’t found a solution yet. I will probably have to use some ARIA. (Doesn’t help that my CMS text editor doesn’t recognize <math> and always changes it to <p>, hence why I’m using MathJax in the first place).
-Elizabeth Thomas
Digital Accessibility Specialist
State of New Jersey