[Athen] Students with Learning Disabilities and Textbooks withMath

[Ken Petri]

Definitely agree with Ron on this one. There needs to be a non-MathPlayer
dependent/cross platform MathML player available. PTReader uses Charles
Chen's Firefox libraries, which I don't think are still being maintained.
However, it would be a shame to see the work go to waste. We need the same
thing for EPUB3.

gh's ReadHear uses MathPlayer on Windows but also claims to support MathML
on Mac:

http://www.ghbraille.com/software/readhear-mac-instant-download

We've liked ReadHear for Windows. Haven't tried it on the Mac, so don't
know it's sophistication with MathML.




ken
--
Ken Petri
Program Director, OSU Web Accessibility Center
102D Pomerene Hall, 1760 Neil Avenue, Columbus, Ohio  43210
Office: 614.292.1760 | Mobile: 614.218.1499 | Fax: 614.292.4190
http://wac.osu.edu | petri.1 at osu.edu


On Thu, Feb 7, 2013 at 6:30 PM, <ron at ahead.org> wrote:


>

> I really wish someone would pick this up.  It was probably the best low

> cost reader for STEM content that I

> have seen.

>

> The Mac issue really needs to be resolved, hope iAuthor can work it out.

>

> Ron Stewart

>

> >  -------Original Message-------

> >  From: Sean J Keegan <skeegan at stanford.edu>

> >  To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <

> athen-list at u.washington.edu>

> >  Subject: Re: [Athen] Students with Learning Disabilities and Textbooks

> withMath

> >  Sent: Feb 07 '13 16:54

> >

> >  > On a related note, however, has anyone figured out a method

> >  > for making math accessible on a Mac platform?

> >

> >  Unfortunately, there does not appear to be many options (still).  The

> >  one solution that did work - intermittently, mind you - was the PT

> >  Reader plug-in for Firefox.  This would allow you to open a DTBook.xml

> >  file in Firefox and would read the MathML content natively.  The website

> >  is available at: http://www.cwu.edu/disability-support/pt-reader

> >

> >  What was so cool about this plug-in was that you could change the level

> >  of verbosity specific to math content to communicate more or less

> >  information about the equations. In other words, some students may

> >  prefer a very brief description of an equation whereas other students

> >  may prefer a more verbose description of the equation.  The plug-in

> >  handled all the necessary modifications as to how much was to be spoken

> >  to the user.

> >

> >  By this point you may be thinking, "Okay, what's the catch?" and sadly,

> >  you are not mistaken.  The tool only supports up to Firefox 13 and does

> >  not always work seamlessly when it comes to navigation within a

> >  document; a minor issue, but very annoying.  Additionally, after

> >  upgrading Firefox you would need to uninstall parts of the plug-in and

> >  then reinstall new components if they were even supported.

> >

> >  So, to give a long answer to a short question - yes, there is a tool

> >  that can read MathML content on a Mac, but it is not the most robust

> >  solution and your mileage may vary.

> >

> >  Take care,

> >  Sean

> >

> >  --

> >  Sean Keegan

> >  Associate Director, Assistive Technology

> >  Office of Accessible Education - Stanford University

> >  http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/oae

> >  _______________________________________________

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> >

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