Making Math Accessible tag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-1460504 2010-03-17T13:59:51-07:00 Promoting and exploring the accessibility of math TypePad MakingMathAccessiblehttp://feedburner.google.com Design Science shows off leading solutions for math accessibility at CSUN 2010 tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54f0d27e2883401310fb1dce4970c 2010-03-17T13:59:51-07:00 2010-03-17T14:01:26-07:00 Next week in San Diego, the largest accessibility conference in the world takes place: CSUN 2010. At CSUN, you'll be able to see, learn, and share the latest techniques to deal with students and others who have a wide range of disabilities. We'll have a booth there to show MathPlayer,... Neil Soiffer

Next week in San Diego, the largest accessibility conference in the world takes place:  CSUN 2010.  At CSUN, you'll be able to see, learn, and share the latest techniques to deal with students and others who have a wide range of disabilities. We'll have a booth there to show MathPlayer, MathType, and MathDaisy and how they handle the task of turning mathematical expressions into something that is accessible and works with other assistive technology.

If you'll be at CSUN or live near San Diego (access to the exhibit hall is free), please stop by and see how Design Science's products are making math accessible to a wide range of people. The Design Science booth is #411. On Saturday at 10:40am, I'll be giving a joint talk with Gaeir Dietrich and John Gardner about Accommodating Mathematics in Higher Ed. We will show both exciting high tech solutions for math accessibility, along with some low tech ones that are very useful.  More details and a link to make a seat reservation can be found on this web page. If you can't make it to CSUN, visit our accessibility solutions web page for information on math accessibility.

To see other conferences where we'll be exhibiting and speaking, refer to the Events page on our website.

 http://accessiblemath.dessci.com/2010/03/design-science-shows-of-leading-solutions-for-math-accessibility-at-csun-2010.html MathPlayer 2.2 Released tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54f0d27e288340120a8616f94970b 2010-02-04T11:25:42-08:00 2010-02-04T11:25:42-08:00 MathPlayer is by far and away the most used MathML renderer around -- in the 27 months since MathPlayer 2.1 was released, 615 million expressions on 29 million pages have been rendered by MathPlayer! I'm happy to say that we've only had a few bug reports since 2.1 was released,... Neil Soiffer

MathPlayer is by far and away the most used MathML renderer around -- in the 27 months since MathPlayer 2.1 was released, 615 million expressions on 29 million pages have been rendered by MathPlayer! I'm happy to say that we've only had a few bug reports since 2.1 was released, some of which were fixed with intervening bug fix releases. We've fixed many of the remaining ones with this release of MathPlayer 2.2. We've also taken some big steps in 2.2 to improve our font support. When the STIX fonts are finally released in a month or two, MathPlayer 2.2 will be able to make use of them.  Even without them, our improved font support makes expressions look much better, as you can see in the screen shots below:

\[{\lim _{x \to \infty }}\int_0^x {{e^{ - {y^2}}}dy} = \frac{{\sqrt \pi }}{2}\]       \[{\lim _{x \to \infty }}\int_0^x {{e^{ - {y^2}}}dy} = \frac{{\sqrt \pi }}{2}\]
  MathPlayer 2.1 vs. MathPlayer 2.2

One thing that hasn't changed with MathPlayer 2.2 is its price -- it's still free. You can update your version of MathPlayer by visiting our MathPlayer downloads page.

 http://accessiblemath.dessci.com/2010/02/mathplayer-22-released.html Math is accessible! MathPlayer closing in on 3 million equations spoken tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54f0d27e288340120a857ffcf970b 2010-02-03T08:52:44-08:00 2010-02-03T08:52:44-08:00 MathPlayer 2.1 was released in September of 2007 and included the ability to work with screen readers and other AT to speak math expression. Its use has grown each year, with a huge jump in the number of expressions spoken in the last few months (the start of the school... Neil Soiffer

MathPlayer 2.1 was released in September of 2007 and included the ability to work with screen readers and other AT to speak math expression. Its use has grown each year, with a huge jump in the number of expressions spoken in the last few months (the start of the school year) as you can see below:

Month by month comparison showing # of equations spoken and the big increase in 2009

Counting the usage from 2007, almost 3 million expressions have been spoken by MathPlayer since it was released!  That's a lot of math being spoken to people who otherwise would not have been able to access the content. If you or your students have been waiting for math accessibility to catch on, wait no longer.

We've seen increased interest from vendors in connecting up with MathPlayer, but not all vendors fully support MathPlayer.  If your AT software is not listed in our AT math support page or if the functionality you want (eg, Braille or synchronized highlighting) is not supported by the AT you use, contact your vendor and let them know you'll buy an upgrade if they add the support.  Vendors listen to their customers. The more often they hear a feature request, the higher priority it becomes for them to add it to their product, so make sure you let them know that math accessibility is important for you.

 http://accessiblemath.dessci.com/2010/02/math-is-accessible-mathplayer-closing-in-on-3-million-equations-spoken.html Design Science showcases accessible math solutions at ATIA 2010 tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54f0d27e288340120a7eebd4b970b 2010-01-19T15:05:07-08:00 2010-01-19T15:05:07-08:00 Next week in Orlando, about 1,200 people looking for and working on accessibility solutions will come together at ATIA 2010 Orlando. Despite being in Orlando, ATIA is no Mickey Mouse conference -- it is the second biggest accessibility conference in the US next to CSUN. At ATIA, you'll be able... Neil Soiffer

Next week in Orlando, about 1,200 people looking for and working on accessibility solutions will come together at ATIA 2010 Orlando. Despite being in Orlando, ATIA is no Mickey Mouse conference -- it is the second biggest accessibility conference in the US next to CSUN.  At ATIA, you'll be able to see, learn, and share the latest techniques to deal with students and others who have a wide range of disabilities. We'll have a booth there to show MathPlayer, MathType, and MathDaisy and how they handle the task of turning mathematical expressions into something that is accessible and works with other assistive technology.

If you'll be at ATIA or live near Orlando (access to the exhibit hall is free), please stop by and see how Design Science's products are making math accessible to a wide range of people. The Design Science booth is #220.  If you can't make it to Orlando, visit our accessibility solutions web page for information on math accessibility.

To see other conferences where we'll be exhibiting and speaking, refer to the Events page on our website.

 http://accessiblemath.dessci.com/2010/01/design-science-showcases-accessible-math-solutions-at-atia-2010.html Mobile math accessibility stays at home for now tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54f0d27e288340120a66d071e970c 2009-10-22T16:51:06-07:00 2009-10-22T16:51:06-07:00 Android is Google's mobile operating system designed to run on smart phones. Google announced that Android 1.6 adds accessibility features designed to make Android apps more widely usable by blind and low-vision users. It includes a screen reader and text-to-speech engine. The announcement was made by T.V. Raman, a Research... Neil Soiffer

Android is Google's mobile operating system designed to run on smart phones.  Google announced that Android 1.6 adds accessibility features designed to make Android apps more widely usable by blind and low-vision users. It includes a screen reader and text-to-speech engine. The announcement was made by T.V. Raman, a Research Scientist at Google.  His PhD thesis pioneered work on math accessibility, so there is hope that a future version of Android will support accessible math.  But for now, you'll need to stick to using MathPlayer or one of the DAISY-based solutions on your computer.

 http://accessiblemath.dessci.com/2009/10/mobile-math-accessibility-stays-at-home-for-now.html