Re: Math on the web

I think there is a need for the following:

1. An evaluation of MATHML to determine whether it provides the necessary
semantic content to enable a reliable audio rendering to be produced.
Modifications, if necessary, could presumably be discussed with the
relevant groups within W3C.

2. The development of software that would accept MATHML as input and
produce spoken output. T.V. Raman's Aster is the only working example of
such an application so far as I am aware, and it is very impressive
(unfortunately I have never had the opportunity to use the software, but I
have heard an audio tape of the results).

3. Cooperation with developers of braille software, including the Maths
project within the TIDE programme, that will lead to the construction of
software for converting MATHML content into braille. Raised Dot Computing
and Duxbury Systems, both in the U.S., have recently incorporated support
for the North American braille mathematics code into their products. The
Maths project supports the British and German codes.

4. The development of a scheme for embedding XML content in HTML
documents, so that the mathematics can be fully integrated into the text,
while retaining the necessary semantic value.

5. Implementation by authoring tools and browsers of MathML and the XML
embedding scheme as mentioned above.

Concretely, this would involve cooperation between the PF, UI and tool
development activities of the WAI, as well as relevant groups within W3C.
The TIDE programme's Maths project, as already mentioned, is relevant,
I understand that the TIDE Maths project has also been considering SGML as
an input format, but O do not know who is involved in this work.

Received on Wednesday, 18 February 1998 23:09:47 UTC