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[Laurie Vasquez]

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>>> Making Math Accessible <accessiblemath at dessci.com> 5/9/2012 5:06 AM

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Making Math Accessible

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White house event: STEM Equality For Americans With Disabilities

Posted: 08 May 2012 04:34 PM PDT
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MakingMathAccessible/~3/fUzFOgSra6k/white-house-event-stem-equality-for-americans-with-disabilities.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email



Steve Noble, Accessibility Research Consultant (Guest Writer)

It was a distinct privilege to be among the hundred-plus people in the 

audience yesterday as the White House recognized fourteen people for
their  
contributions toward advancing access to Science, Technology,
Engineering  
and Mathematics (STEM) for people with disabilities. The event,
Champions  
of Change: STEM Equality For Americans With Disabilities was the latest
in  
the *Champions of Change* series which recognizes leaders in
various fields  
across the county and brings them to the White House *to share their
ideas  
to win the future.*

According to Kareem Dale, special assistant to President Barack Obama
for  
disability policy, *The leaders we*ve selected as Champions of
Change are  
proving that when the playing field is level, people with disabilities
can  
excel in STEM, develop new products, create scientific inventions, open
 
successful businesses and contribute equally to the economic and  
educational future of our country.* Mr. Dale, who is blind himself,
pointed  
out the importance of providing an equal opportunity in the STEM fields
to  
people with disabilities, and that *there*s nothing that we can*t
do as  
people with disabilities when given that equal opportunity.*

I was delighted to see friends being honored whom I have known for
quite  
some time--like George Kerscher of the DAISY Consortium and Virginia
Stern  
of AAAS, as well as a number of younger people just starting their
careers  
whom I had never met before. It was especially encouraging to see a
number  
of successful graduate students with disabilities who are
distinguishing  
themselves in the STEM fields, something which is certainly a testimony
to  
Kareem Dale*s affirmation about the ability of people with
disabilities to  
excel when given an equal opportunity.

I thought it would be fitting to add just a few special comments about
four  
individuals recognized at the White House who have a special connection
to  
making math accessible.

George Kerscher serves as Secretary General of the DAISY Consortium and
 
President of the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). George
and  
I have worked together in the field for over two decades--since his
days  
running what was then called Computerized Books for the Blind. Kareem
Dale  
introduced George as *a legend in his own right*, and I couldn*t
agree  
more. George brought our own Neil Soiffer on board to chair the MathML
in  
DAISY Working Group, for which George was a member and key contributor.
 
Over the years, George has been instrumental in ensuring that
accessible  
math is a component of digital document standards, like DAISY and EPUB
3. 

During the event, John Boyer mentioned that as a deaf-blind student in
the  
1940s he could not find enough STEM materials in braille to satisfy his
 
hunger for science, and that this experience led him to work on braille
 
translation systems which could better handle mathematics. John*s
previous  
work on liblouis and his current BrailleBlaster translation technology
are  
examples of open source products which include the capability to
translate  
MathML into to various braille math codes. Design Science has been
involved  
with John*s work and we*ll be using it as part of MathPlayer 3's
braille  
support for refreshable braille displays.

Sina Birham, a blind graduate student at North Carolina State
University,  
is an up and coming star and soon will be getting his PhD in computer 

science. Sina is working with us on adding math expression navigation
to a  
future version of MathPlayer.

Steve Jacobs, President of the IDEAL Group, is someone I have known for
 
years, having served together as co-presenters on sessions and members
of  
committees. Steve has worked to spread the news about accessible math
and  
his company has worked to produce a number of applications which help
to  
make STEM content more accessible to people with disabilities.

Of course, these are just a few of the Champions honored by the White 

House. We would like to enthusiastically congratulate all the
Champions,  
and recognize their accomplishments in the STEM fields. The White House
is  
certainly to be commended for its efforts at drawing attention to this 

vital issue.

 

Steve Noble is a research consultant with a core focus in mathematics  

accessibility  and assistive technology. Currently he serves on  
grant-funded  research  projects with both the University of Kentucky
and  
Bridge Multimedia,   and previously served as Director of Accessibility
 
Policy for Design  Science.

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