[Athen] Mathml and JAWS

Sean Keegan skeegan at htctu.net
Wed Oct 17 11:19:13 PDT 2007



> Is any special coding needed for math ML to be read correctly by screen

readers?

Right now, for MathML based Web pages to be interpreted correctly by
assistive technology you need to be using MathPlayer with Internet Explorer.
The only special coding that I am aware of in this situation is the need to
have additional declarations in the <head> part of the your XHTML/HTML
document. Here is the basic template of the code at:
http://www.dessci.com/en/products/mathplayer/author/creatingpages.htm#Anatom
yMathPlayerWebPage

If creating MathML Web pages from MathType/MS Word, then you do have to be
careful with respect to the export option. If you wish to view the Web page
on your local computer (not via the Internet), then you need to export as
MathPlayer (IE Behavior). This will result in a HTML document that only
works with IE.

If you are going to put this page on a webserver AND want the content
available to IE, Firefox, etc. browsers, then you need to export as
XHTML+MathML. This page will not be "readable" with IE on your local
machine, but if you upload it to your webserver, it should work fine.


> I also tried Mathplayer and it didn't seem to read it correctly with JAWS.

Any suggestions?

MathPlayer is just a plug-in that allows for MathML content to be displayed
in IE. The best analogy may be that MathPlayer is something like the Flash
player - it only initializes when necessary based on page content. Alone
MathPlayer will speak the expression using the voices available on the
computer. If using a screen-reader (JAWS, Supernova, Window-Eyes), then all
you need to do is have the screen-reader running when you get to the page -
the screen-reader will just read the content as any other text content on
the page.

What browser were you using and what screen-reader version?

Take care,
Sean

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