- From: Lloyd G. Rasmussen <lras@loc.gov>
- Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2003 09:40:12 -0400
- To: nfb-se@lothlorien.nfbcal.org
- Cc: lras@sprynet.com, nfbcs@nfbnet.org, blindprogramming@yahoogroups.com, w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
I haven't tested this, but it looks interesting. Forwarded from the AFB Solutions Forum and the Daisy Technical Developments mailing lists: >From: "George Kerscher" <kerscher@montana.com> >To: <technical-developments@daisy.org> >Subject: MathSpeak is bringing spoken math to your web >Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2003 07:22:27 -0600 > >Hello Tech Dev, > >Thought this would be of interest. > >Best >George > >> >> Education, SPED, Math and Science Editors >> For Immediate Release >> >> Cambridge, MA -- MathSpeak is bringing spoken math to your web >> browser, >now. >> >> MathSpeak(tm), the new HTML creation mechanism in MathEQ 4.0 >> Expression >Editor, >> provides web pages with mathematical and scientific notation to be >> parsed by computer screen-to-voice readers for visually-impaired and >> blind internet users. >> >> MathSpeak relies on currently available and common technology used >> today by visually-impaired and blind web users. A variety of web >> development organizations, such as Mozilla, W3, and the MathML >> community, have plans to provide an advanced support for special >> screen readers for mathematical symbols and expressions using MathML. > >> The goal of MathSpeak is to work with current technologies, today, so >> that visually-impaired and blind users may glean information from >> current webpages for science and mathematics, although less advanced >> than these ambitious plans. >> >> Theorist Interactive, LLC, of Cambridge, developers of the LiveMath >> and >MathEQ >> computer algebra software line, introduced this tool with the release >> of MathEQ 4.0 for Windows and Macintosh computers. >> >> MathSpeak is a set of special HTML tags that all speech-to-text screen > >> readers can access on a webpage, and correctly read the expression as >> spoken speech. Although webpage authors can manually create the such >> tags for their math expressions, the task can be >cumbersome. >> MathEQ will automatically create the correct MathSpeak tags when used >> to create either images or MathML-based math expressions for webpages. >> >> Previously, when a visually-impaired or blind internet user surfed to >> a webpage with mathematical formulas presented on it, the standard >> screen reading tools, of which the most popular is JAWS, could not >> interpret the mathematical formulas into to synthesized speech, either > >> because the formulas are images on the HTML page, or, if using the new > >> MathML markup language, their screen reader is not adapted to >> converting MathML into spoken language. >> >> Now, if this example webpage is created with the additional MathSpeak >> tags, then the screen readers will correctly convert the mathematical >> formulas and expressions on the page to >synthesized speech. >> >> >> For more information on MathSpeak, please contact: >> >> Lisa Brightman >> Host of Inspire America TV - http://www.inspireamerica.org Consultant >> for Accessibility Technologies, Theorist Interactive, LLC >> lisa@inspireamerica.org >> >> Diane Housken >> General Partner, Theorist Interactive, LLC >> diane@livemath.com >> http://www.livemath.com >> http://www.mathspeak.org >> >> > Braille is the solution to the digital divide. Lloyd Rasmussen, Senior Staff Engineer National Library Service f/t Blind and Physically Handicapped Library of Congress (202) 707-0535 <http://www.loc.gov/nls/> HOME: <http://lras.home.sprynet.com> The opinions expressed here are my own and do not necessarily represent those of NLS.
Received on Friday, 13 June 2003 09:38:36 UTC