[Athen] Reading MathJax with JAWS

[Mary J Ziegler]

Hi George, Joshua, Louis (and any other replies I missed),

Thank you so much for this detail!

I was aware that NVDA/MathCAT is the optimal solution for reading MathJax, but I must say I was unaware JAWS may read the math inaccurately or incompletely. The student is rather attached to JAWS, but I will share this limitation and recommend NVDA for math courses.  I can't in good conscience recommend JAWS if the math will not read properly.  The equations in the course I am helping with are rather complex and I need all the notation to be announced.

Mary

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Joshua Hori
Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2023 2:56 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Reading MathJax with JAWS

User guide for MathCAT + NVDA: https://nsoiffer.github.io/MathCAT/users.html

I prefer Chrome over Firefox, but either works. If I recall correctly, there's a slight difference in how the equation is read. We used it for testing libretext math textbooks.

~ Joshua

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> on behalf of kerscher at montana.com<mailto:kerscher at montana.com> <kerscher at montana.com<mailto:kerscher at montana.com>>
Date: Thursday, March 30, 2023 at 11:25 AM
To: 'Access Technology Higher Education Network' <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Reading MathJax with JAWS
Hello,

I am assuming the mathematics is in MathML, which is great. MathJax is used by many websites for presentation of the math. The MathJax menu for a screen reader user is not useful, from my experience.

At CSUN, the presentation, "What grade did your screen reader get in arithmetic" demonstrated most of the screen readers exploring MathML. The best was NVDA with the MathCAT add-in. Jaws had serious issues, and the folks at Jaws know about it. It seems they will be moving to MathCAT as well, but we do not know when.

So for now, Just use Jaws in the math reading mode. If there is an expression such as the square root of 4+5 Jaws will not indicate if the 5 is under the root. The student will have trouble with these kinds of things.

Best
George


From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> On Behalf Of Mary J Ziegler
Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2023 9:50 AM
To: Access Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Subject: [Athen] Reading MathJax with JAWS

Dear Colleagues,

I'm trying to locate a user guide for JAWS users to understand how to best navigate and read math equations presented on a webpage with MathJax.

I have found a lot of detail on how to author math in MathJax - but am trying to help a student read the equations already authored and presented in MathJax.

JAWS has the MathViewer that does a good job of reading math, but my questions are
  *   what is the best way to configure/change any MathJax settings to render the math to play as happily as possible with JAWS?
  *   What browser reads the math best?
  *   Other suggestions?

Thanks!
Mary

Mary J. Ziegler (she/her)
Program Manager for Online Learning Accessibility
Online Worldwide Learning Services (OWLS)
Email: maryz at mit.edu<mailto:maryz at mit.edu>
Phone: 617-258-9328


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