Much math material is presented on the web as pictures of the equations. Other material is written out using the laTeX language, which is related to the TeX typesetting language. Other material is written using a web standard called MathML, mathematical markup language. MathML was supported in Internet Explorer by means of the MathPlayer program from Design Sciences. This primarily output speech rather than correctly coded braille. MathPlayer is a plug-in to IE, and was a great solution until Microsoft decided to disable plug-ins at IE version 10. Trying to solve this problem is not just a matter of putting some extended characters into a dictionary. It is, once again, like trying to build your own browser that interprets JavaScript, various flavors of HTML, various styles of coding, etc. Part of MathML is being interpreted by VoiceOver on the iDevices starting with iOS version 7. Applications that can read ePub 3 publications are supposed to be able to interpret MathML, but most of this is not working yet.You shlould also look up information about MathJax, and the program that works within EdSharp to help you interpret LaTeX (pronounced "La Tech) expressions.
Lloyd Rasmussen, Senior Project Engineer National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped Library of Congress 202-707-0535 http://www.loc.gov/nls The preceding opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Library of Congress, NLS. From: RicksPlace [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Saturday, March 08, 2014 6:47 AM To: [email protected] Subject: WE and Advanced Math and Science Symbols Hi: What is it about screen readers where they have so much trouble reading advanced math and, or, science characters? For example, what about the Calcus symbols or the standard ones often used in describing the EM Field variables? Has anyone ever done anything trying to write a script for say either a book reader or even internet pages to make the equations read well? I have been looking at many sites lately related to quantum mechanics and light and found many, all?, sites using equations where either I get a line of characters that dont make sense to me or a blank space where a given symbol, image?, is located within the equations. I know there are third party packages that might, repeat might, work perhaps with braille but why cant a screen reader like WindowEyes with it's attendant dictionaries be used to read these pages or books? I am wondering if the pages or software could be scripted in some way to make advanced math and science equations readable with WindowEyes. Just a consideration at this point and not even a thought of being a scripting project but just the question of why it hasent been done by the screen reader companies and if anyone has ever tried to script something to enable it for WindowEyes in the past. Rick USA
