[math-on-web] meeting minutes, 2016/12/01

Hi everyone,

Below are the minutes from the last meeting

Best,
Peter.

# Math on web CG 2016/12/01

* Present: Tzviya, Volker, Peter, Jos, Kevin, Han

* Agenda:
  * updates on actions
  * a11y TF report
  * scheduling 2017

* Updates on actions:
  * Peter: webpages have been updated as discussed
    * GitHub pages now the default; old "main" now points there
    * clean up homepage
  * Jos: I want to update the linear formats page
    * => ACTION Jos
    * Peter: suggestion: look at new UnicodeMath version (by Murray
Sargent, Microsoft).
      * includes comparison with computational system notation
    * Peter: another suggestion jqmath, Unicode-driven, MathML equivalent
  * Jean's message on her ACTION (structure for subgroups) => later update
* Peter: now that conversation starters have have we will need to see how
much attention we can get around a) accessibility, b) layout, c) plain-text
notation
  * Tzviya: suggestion from my experience leading such groups: follow the
directions that members lead you to

* Peter reported on the a11y task force meeting
  * [walk-through of Dani's demo]
    * easy markup to follow (derived from MathML)
    * mockup, focused on markup ideas that could work (not markup that WILL
work today)
    * revisiting role=math (e.g., where Dani uses title)
    * use of labels (as titles)
    * the fraction line problem of MathML
  * [walk-through of Peter's demo]
    * more focused on resulting output
    * MathML-based but not essential
    * aria-label to provide voicing since MathML lacks semantics (e.g.,
mover => derviative)
      * also improved customizability (e.g., P(E) => "Probability of E")
    * binomial vs mfrac issue
    * exploration by DOM
  * Peter: sample was motivated by mediaquery for MathML discussion.
Florian asked what alternatives might work
    * start by handwritten versions, identify what works, where limitations
    * then discuss automation via tools like speechruleengine
  * Jos: to check: the idea is to use existing accessibility attributes via
MathML in HTML?
    * Peter: yes.
      * Enrich MathML since it's not semantic.
      * Do it in a way that survives the transformation into HTML or SVG
      * seems to work reasonably well
      * there are obvious limits when expressions get very complicated but
that's not different from other content
      * from working with speechruleengine, I've focused on things that
could be automated
  * Peter: the task force meeting discussed the different approaches
    * identify points of aligning our approaches
    * Volker more thinking about automation (his speechruleengine,
chemexplorer)
    * identify limitations
    * points where standards could help
  * Jos: how does it survive MathJax's SVG output?
    * Peter: the SVG output optimizes the SVGs which causes losts labels
      * but that's a comparatively minor issue as this optimization could
easily be disabled
* Tzviya: a couple of suggestions
  *  look into SVG accessibility mappings
    * Peter: +1. Volker has been on a task force
  * Tzviya: next ARIA rec coming out, then a good time to talk about ARIA
math
  * Tzviya: the ARIA Document Model draft should be relevant
    * https://wicg.github.io/a11yapi/
    * Jos: is there a good example for a11y that is independent of the DOM?
      * Tzviya: audio books
* Peter: scheduling -- would like to increase to weekly or biweekly
  * Peter: given the quorum, do a Doodle by email as before?
    * Kevin: +1
    * Jos: +1 both date and frequency
    * Tzviya: +1
* Peter: personal goal for 2017: get a layout task force going
  * evaluate current techniques, explore next gen technologies (grid etc)
* ACTIONS
  * update on plain text syntax document (Jos)
    * update on MathSON (Han)
  * update from a11y TF (a11y TF)
  * scheduling (Peter)