RE: MathML - and action 1494.

James Craig wrote:
>
> Furthermore, much has changed in the last half a decade since
> this text was written. The native implementations of accessible
> MathML are vastly superior to plain text approximations of Math
> equations, even allowing spacial exploration of equations, and
> Nemeth Braille output. All modern but unsupported browsers can
> be polyfilled to include support with libraries like MathJax.

James, I wish I could share your optimism. As recently as May of this year, 
the reports I received from my contacts in the academic world suggest that the 
support you are hoping for is far less robust than you may think. I urge you 
to read all of the comments appended to my HTML5/a11y-TF note: 
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-a11y/2014May/0090.html

I further recall that a number of EDU representatives at CSUN this spring were 
lamenting the fact that support appeared to be going backward, not forward; 
with Google backing out of Chrome support, and non-existent support in IE11 
they were quiet upset as I recall. Frankly today, it appears that to provide 
real math support at the EDU level, institutions are resorting to recreating 
the content in MS Word or Daisy:

	"To make HMTL-based math accessible requires the use of MathPlayer
from DesignScience. MathPlayer requires IE 9 or less and will not work IE
11. They say it partially works with IE 10. Without MathPlayer the other two
options for consuming accessible math are either converting to a DAISY
format or MS Word." (G. Kraus 5/7/14)

>
> Mainstream and accessibility support for MathML is only getting
> better, and I think it's fine to acknowledge that progress in a
> yet-to-be-written non-normative note.

I have no issue with noting that MathML is a future-forward technique, but 
non-normatively we should also acknowledge that current support is, at best, 
weak. As such, the same non-normative document should also include other, 
alternative means of achieving accessibility support, which I believe is what 
Rich was suggesting, and is certainly what I am suggesting.

JF

Received on Monday, 11 August 2014 01:01:16 UTC