[Athen] Writing math notation with VoiceOver on Mac

[Romack, Justin via athen-list]

Howdy all!

I'm working with a blind student studying statistics and we've run into a challenge this fall.

They are taking a class with some heavy math and will need to both read and write math expressions throughout the semester.

For the reading portion, the professor produces materials in LaTeX and I feel fairly comfortable that we can take their source and convert to HTML w/ MathML. This should address the reading needs.

The composition of math using Voiceover is where I'm a little stumped... Granted, this student anticipates they will learn LaTeX in the future - they don't know enough now for this to be an option. I've heard the MS Equation Editor has become much more usable with JAWS/NVDA, but I don't know if the same is true for VoiceOver.

One solution that has been proposed by the instructor is for the student to write a literal text description of the math expression, which the student has done for an assignment. We wanted to see if there were other options available or if this was the best route to get them through this course until they are able to do more with LaTeX in the future.

If anyone has thoughts, ideas or firsthand experience, I'm all ears!

FWIW: This student has had some progressive vision loss, which is why they have had less exposure to techniques like this to this point. Also... they have had well-intended instructors who have dismissed them from doing certain aspects of the work in other classes. I mention this because we need to counter the narrative that our disabled students can't do it... or that it's easier to exempt them from doing it... because it puts them at a significant disadvantage as they progress through their area of study. What feels like kindness and empathy is rooted in attitudinal barriers which do more harm than good (and those with sensory disabilities tend to be most adversely impacted by these situations).

Take good care,
J




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Justin Romack, Assistant Director
Disability Resources | Division of Student Affairs
1224 TAMU | College Station, TX 77843-1224

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