[Athen] question Jaws reading math

[Noble,Stephen L.]

I was on a call several weeks back with the JAWS developers at FS, and they do home to eventually support native reading of math expressions inside a Word document...but they aren't there yet. But NVDA does work, and Window-Eyes used to work...and still may.

As far as reading math expressions in an HTML page, using either HTML5+MathML or HTML+MathJax as the MathPage export *should* result in a file that can be read by JAWS. Using HTML+MathJax is probably best if you don't know what browser the student is going to use. JAWS doesn't require MathPlayer or MathType to read math from an HTML file. According to their website, it should work in either Firefox or Internet Explorer:
http://www.freedomscientific.com/JAWSHQ/JAWSHeadquarters01

That probably means it *doesn't* work with Microsoft Edge in Windows 10...you'll need to see if you can install IE11. Also the newest Firefox is causing problems with JAWS, so for now you'll probably have to switch to Firefox ESR:
http://blog.freedomscientific.com/2017/10/25/important-information-for-users-of-mozilla-firefox/

Hope that helps!

--Steve Noble
steve.noble at louisville.edu
502-969-3088
http://louisville.academia.edu/SteveNoble

________________________________________
From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu> on behalf of Susan Kelmer <Susan.Kelmer at colorado.edu>
Sent: Thursday, December 7, 2017 11:34 AM
To: DSSHE-L at LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU; Access        Technology Higher Education Network
Subject: [Athen] question Jaws reading math

Hi all.  I should know this, but the last five years, I’ve had students using NVDA to read math, so I’m very very rusty in this area.

We are creating word files using Mathtype, and publishing them to Mathpage.  The student indicates that the files aren’t working – the math isn’t being read.  He has mathplayer installed.

I believe he also needs MathType, is that correct?  Is there anything else he needs to have installed to make this work?  Is MathJax a requirement?  He’s using Windows 10, so needs to use Firefox or Chrome browsers, I assume.  Also, exactly WHAT files from that Mathpage output do I send him?  There is the file.htm, and then a folder full of the additional files (images and some xml files).  I keep thinking these two things are not talking to each other, if they need to.

A good step-by-step process for how we need to save these files on our end, and more info on how the student should be accessing them, would be helpful.  Accessible math is somewhat new to him, and I don’t know if it is error his end, or error on our end, or missing software on his end.

Thanks in advance for any and all assistance.

Susan Kelmer
Alternate Format Production Program Manager
Disability Services
University of Colorado Boulder
303-735-4836