[Athen] [EXT]Re: Anyone have experience with the JAWS Braille Math editor

[Robert Beach]

I'll add that I tried using the math editor with a Orbit 20, not much luck there. When I tried entering math from the braille keyboard, nothing happened at all.


Robert Lee Beach
Assistive Technology Specialist - Student Accessibility & Support Services

Kansas City Kansas Community College
7250 State Ave. - Suite # 3384 - Kansas City, KS 66112
O 913-288-7671 | F 913-288-7678
rbeach at kckcc.edu<mailto:rbeach at kckcc.edu>



From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Michael Cantino
Sent: Friday, March 11, 2022 4:21 PM
To: athen-list at u.washington.edu
Subject: [EXT]Re: [Athen] Anyone have experience with the JAWS Braille Math editor

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Hi Deborah,
I've been testing out the JAWS Braille Math Editor for the last 6 months or so, and I've been really pleased with the results.

As you mentioned, the math authoring options for blind users have been pretty limited. That's why I've been really excited about this JAWS update. The print to braille and braille to print translation is really solid. It's great to finally have an option that will allow braille students to author math in braille and have that content immediately available to share with sighted users. There have been similar tools available in the past, but it's typically been limited to specific devices. JAWS is so widely used and readily available that I think this is going to have a much broader impact than previous tools.

Some things you should know about the JAWS math editor:

  *   It uses the Nemeth braille code for input and output. Before the US adopted UEB as its official braille code in 2016, Nemeth was the only technical code in use for math and science (not including the computer code). After the adoption of UEB, some states chose to use UEB as their technical code, and other states stuck with Nemeth. Depending on the age of your students and where they previously attended school, they may or may not be familiar with the Nemeth code.
  *   There are some limitations. I've been able to stump JAWS' Nemeth translation, but so far I've only had issues with fairly obscure symbols, like shapes with specific fill patterns. I would also expect JAWS to struggle with spatial content, but I haven't tested this out. Nemeth uses spatial layouts for some content, and the rules for these layouts don't alway follow the typical Nemeth rules. For that reason, I would expect the JAWS translation to breakdown if you're writing something other than in-line expressions.
  *   I'm hearing about compatibility issues. The feature should work in Word 2019 or in Word 365. Freedom Scientific told me that it might work in "in later versions of Word 2016", but it won't work in earlier versions of Word. The feature will work outside of Word and will copy MathML to the clipboard, but I haven't tested this much yet.
I've also heard that users are having issues with particular braille displays. I've been using this feature with Focus 40 and Brailliant 40 displays, and I haven't had any issues. The tech staff at the Oregon Commission for the Blind told me that they were having issues when using the feature with the Braille Edge 40 display from HIMS.

One other interesting development is that JAWS can now read math created with the Word Equation Editor. I don't think it's time to ditch MathType yet, but it can be good to have options. Aside from this JAWS feature, I've noticed that math created with the Word Equation Editor has more errors than other math tools when translating the content in Duxbury.

Hope that helps! I'd be happy to answer any other questions you have about this. I don't have all of the information, but it's useful for me to study up on this anyhow.

Michael Cantino (he/him)
BVIS Technology Professional Development Specialist
Northwest Regional Education Service District
(503)614-1339
Check out the BVIS Tech website<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsites.google.com%2Fnwresd.k12.or.us%2Fbvistech%2Fhome&data=04%7C01%7Crbeach%40kckcc.edu%7C5dcf793bc40149d8c41208da03adccff%7C23c46d06c5e342e3b848763ebb02e6ad%7C0%7C0%7C637826342694577552%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=j%2F%2F4Q3ze8v51xSqzNDxgbhJEMguK9eYyMgufz8XZOVQ%3D&reserved=0> to find helpful resources!
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