[Athen] Is anyone familiar with this method for creating accessible math in PDF?

[Susan Kelmer]

You are exactly correct.  It may be reading math out loud, but it is not allowing the user to navigate within an equation the way they would need to in order to solve the problem.

Just turning everything into audio is not a solution.  If it were, we wouldn't be creating so much MathML, Latex, etc. The instructor needs to understand that the output needs to fit the student, and in my opinion, this would not work at all for student using a screen reader.


Susan Kelmer
Alternate Format Production Program Manager
Disability Services
Division of Student Affairs
T 303 735 4836
www.colorado.edu/disabilityservices<http://www.colorado.edu/disabilityservices>


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From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Morgan Severeid
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2022 4:50 PM
To: athen-list at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Athen] Is anyone familiar with this method for creating accessible math in PDF?

Hello!

I am an Alternative Text Services Coordinator at a University who is advising a faculty member on making his environmental science course content more accessible for blind students who do not know Braille or read LaTeX. Most of the course content currently exists in a large, untagged PDF which was generated from a LaTeX file. It contains charts, graphs, plain text, math equations, and chemical equations. Our campus accessibility departments have recommended converting the course content into either a Canvas course (with MathML for equations) or Word Documents with MathML to make the content more accessible for screen reader use.

The instructor countered these recommendations with a solution described here in a TeX forum: Making LaTeX Math Audibly Legible<https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/454944/is-there-screen-reader-software-or-a-built-in-method-that-supports-latex-equat>. Is anyone here familiar with this specific method of making math accessible in a PDF? From what I understand about this method, this tokcycle package allows you to attach tokens to visible PDF content (like math symbols). This token is where you would type in the spelled-out alternative to each symbol. The token isn't visible in the PDF, but it will be voiced by TTS.

If my understanding is correct, this solution would not allow a screen reader user to interact with the math in the same way that they can with MathML. So I'm hesitant to approve it over our recommended formats.

Does anyone know whether this method works? If anyone here has tried producing or reading math with this method, your feedback is very appreciated!

Sincerely,
Morgan


Morgan Severeid | Document Conversion Coordinator

(She, Her, Hers)

Student Disability Services
The University of Chicago | Campus & Student Life
5501 South Ellis Avenue | Chicago, Illinois 60637
Phone: 773.702.6000 | msevereid at uchicago.edu<mailto:msevereid at uchicago.edu>

Schedule a meeting with me<https://outlook.office365.com/owa/calendar/SDSMSevereid@uchicagoedu.onmicrosoft.com/bookings/>

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