Re: [MathOnWeb] Accessibile Math

Hi everyone,

Sorry I've not been able to attend the chats so far.  I'll try to make 
the next one.

My contact info:
     benoit@math.colostate.edu
     970-491-0549

I am building an online testing and instruction platform (actually 
rebuilding an existing Java-based platform to use HTML5 only).  I've 
done a Java-based rendering and layout engine for math (including math 
laid out inside of graphs and drawings), and I'm struggling somewhat on 
how to do this well in an HTML-only setting.  I may come down to 
rendering on the server with my current engine, and sending content out 
as images with alt-text, but that seems a real shame.

My general opinion on the matter is that (presentation) MathML does a 
decent job of capturing the semantics of math content, which is what 
HTML is designed to do - leaving the formatting to CSS.  It seems like 
if CSS can't handle MathML, then CSS is fundamentally broken, and work 
needs to focus there.  Rendering with stretchy operators and auto-sizing 
fences is not outrageous - the visual formatting model should be able to 
handle it.  It already renders tables from the inside out, so I'm not 
quite getting why math is so challenging.

I'm looking forward to learning more about the problem and getting ideas 
that can help guide my project in the right direction.

Best regards,
Steve Benoit

Special Assistant Professor
Department of Mathematics
Colorado State University

On 4/26/2018 1:21 PM, Charles LaPierre wrote:
> Hello everyone,
> Great meeting today.  Steve, not sure you saw in the chat there were a 
> number of us who put in our contact information in so we could connect 
> up with you on the work you are doing.  I believe Arno was also 
> looking to connect as well.
> My contact information is below.
>
>
> Thanks
> EOM
>
> Charles LaPierre
> Technical Lead, DIAGRAM and Born Accessible
> E-mail: charlesl@benetech.org <mailto:charlesl@benetech.org>
> Twitter: @CLaPierreA11Y
> Skype: charles_lapierre
> Phone: 650-600-3301
>