[Athen] Math Lab accessibility

[John Gardner]

Hi.  I asked Neil Soiffer of Design Science (maker of  MathType and
MathPlayer to respond to this question.  He is their math accessibility
expert and probably knows more on this subject than anybody else on earth.
Here's his response.  He assumes that everybody knows that MathML is
accessible!
 
 
It sounds like they are asking
what software/hardware should they for their math labs to make them more
accessible.
The tiger printers and IVEO are one obvious set of hardware additions that
would
help.
On the software side, making sure MathPlayer is loaded and having a DAISY
player
(gh and/or Dolphin) loaded is important.  The blind math mailing list has
had a number
of people say pros/cons about various vendor's math computation software --
I haven't
kept track about which software works and which doesn't with which AT.
The opposite side of the answer is about how they generate content.  Making
it easy
for profs or whomever to generate accessible content is important.  That
could be
XHTML+MathML or DAISY books.  So depending on their authoring tools, they
should
have Word+MathType and maybe the Word Save as DAISY add in when it is out of
beta
or they should have TeX4ht or LaTeXML or some other tex-to-XHTML+MathML
converter.
Since they can make sure the labs have IE and Firefox, there is no need to
worry
about server support for browser's that don't work with MathML.
    Neil


  _____  

From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On
Behalf Of Wiersma, Constance A
Sent: Monday, March 09, 2009 9:20 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network
Subject: [Athen] Math Lab accessibility



Our office has been has been asked to consult with the Math department as
they are developing a couple of new labs.  Most of our basic assistive
technology programs (JAWS, Kurzweil, ZoomText, etc.) are included in the lab
image on campus and we have many adjustable work stations on campus.
However, we have not done anything special for the math labs and this seems
like a good chance to add software that will improve access to math for
students.   We have used Scientific Notebook in the past for students
testing in our area.  Does anyone have any suggestions of software/hardware
that would enhance these labs?

 

Thank you for your help.

 

Sincerely,

 

Connie Wiersma, Assistant Director

Center for Students with Disabilities

Andersen Library 2002E

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

Whitewater, WI  53190

Ph. 262-472-5244

 

 

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