Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Screen reader compatibility for equations (self.Blind)
submitted by JoeBear55
Hi everyone. I hope this question is ok to post here.
I work for a university and regularly produce question sheets and solutions for my students which include mathematical equations. I'd like to make sure that all my materials are compatible with screen readers. There seems to be lots of conflicting opinions on how to do this.
If there are any screen reader users who regularly use them to read mathematical equations I would really appreciate hearing your opinions. In what format do you find equations easiest to access (word doc, pdf, html etc.)? Are there any particularly good or bad examples of equations that you could point me to? Is there anything that you would like done better with regards to presenting equations for screen readers?
Thanks in advance
I work for a university and regularly produce question sheets and solutions for my students which include mathematical equations. I'd like to make sure that all my materials are compatible with screen readers. There seems to be lots of conflicting opinions on how to do this.
If there are any screen reader users who regularly use them to read mathematical equations I would really appreciate hearing your opinions. In what format do you find equations easiest to access (word doc, pdf, html etc.)? Are there any particularly good or bad examples of equations that you could point me to? Is there anything that you would like done better with regards to presenting equations for screen readers?
Thanks in advance
BlindGuyNW 3 points 2y ago
Depending on what's available, I'd prefer access to the equations in LaTeX, which eases possible conversion to other formats. If this is not possible, MathML is decent.
JoeBear55 [OP] 2 points 2y ago
Thanks for this. I've had trouble exporting from LaTeX into other screen readable formats, but I suspect this just requires more research on my part.
Ideally I'd like to minimise the need for students to install programs to allow the reading of material. I'll have another look at MathML.
Ideally I'd like to minimise the need for students to install programs to allow the reading of material. I'll have another look at MathML.
retrolental_morose 1 points 2y ago
So much math in PDF is images; MathML may be more limited than latex but it's better than nothing.
There was a project called euromath braille - maybe that'll give you some ideas?
There was a project called euromath braille - maybe that'll give you some ideas?
JoeBear55 [OP] 1 points 2y ago
This is exactly what I've found. I can make screen readable equations in word or other software, but as soon as I export to PDF or html it just converts to an image with no alt description. I'll take a look at the euromath braille as well. Thanks
JoeBear55 [OP] 1 points 2y ago
Thanks everyone. The cocensus sounds like LaTeX first followed by MathType to MathML second. I'll be sure to try these as well as some of the other suggestions above. Thanks to all for responding, this has been really helpful.
SirJektive 1 points 2y ago
Math student here. LaTeX source is most accessible and what I most prefer, followed by MathML or MathJax.
sinabahram 1 points 2y ago
If you can output to MathML then several screen readers have support for both reading and even interacting with the mathematics in that case. For example, using MathType in Microsoft Word is an easy path to doing this.
RJHand 1 points 2y ago
Someone here already suggested a pretty good solution however asciimath works great too. Only thing is you gotta learn the symbols.
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