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Re: MathJax and NVDA

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From: David Farough
Date: Mar 17, 2023 1:18PM

Good afternoon;
The following is taken from the NVDA 2022.4 user guide.
* snip *
7. Reading Mathematical Content
Using MathPlayer 4 from Design Science, NVDA can read and interactively navigate supported mathematical content. This requires that MathPlayer 4 is installed on the computer. MathPlayer is available as a free download from: https://www.dessci.com/en/products/mathplayer/. After installing MathPlayer, restart NVDA.

NVDA supports the following types of mathematical content:

MathML in Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Google Chrome.
Microsoft Word 365 Modern Math Equations via UI automation: NVDA is able to read and interact with math equations in Microsoft Word 365/2016 build 14326 and higher. Note however that any previously created MathType equations must be first converted to Office Math. This can be done by selecting each and choosing "Equation Options", then "Convert to Office Math" in the context menu. Ensure your version of MathType is the latest version before doing this. Microsoft Word provides linear symbol-based navigation through the equations itself and supports inputting math using several syntaxes, including LateX. For further details, please see Linear format equations using UnicodeMath and LaTeX in Word
Microsoft Powerpoint, and older versions of Microsoft Word: NVDA can read and navigate MathType equations in both Microsoft Powerpoint and Microsoft word. MathType needs to be installed in order for this to work. The trial version is sufficient. It can be downloaded from https://www.dessci.com/en/products/mathtype/
Adobe Reader: Note that this is not an official standard yet, so there is currently no publicly available software that can produce this content.
Kindle Reader for PC: NVDA can read and navigate Math in Kindle for PC for books with accessible math.
When reading a document, NVDA will speak any supported mathematical content where it occurs. If you are using a braille display, it will also be displayed in braille.

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of Elizabeth Thomas
Sent: Friday, March 17, 2023 2:49 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: [WebAIM] MathJax and NVDA


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