Re: [www-math] <none>

Hi Neil,

Would it be possible to invite multiple AT representatives from the systems
in question to the group? Maybe not as permanent members (as that is a
large admin burden) but at least for a small invited talk each?

It would be quite informative for the group to understand why and where
these inconsistencies arise, and if different implementers have strong
reasons for their choices.
Some would consider that as a prerequisite to standardizing one outcome
over another, which is what a "Default" ruleset represents.

It would also be helpful to get written testimonies of the affected AT
users, so that we can get a clearer view of their pain points. Consider the
way arXiv excerpted their user study as five "Themes" at the end of their
accessibility report:
https://info.arxiv.org/about/accessibility_research_report.html

It is easy to believe there is room for improvement, but hard to see the
constructive actions our group could take without more thorough preparation.

Greetings,
Deyan

On Fri, Feb 10, 2023 at 3:26 PM Neil Soiffer <soiffer@alum.mit.edu> wrote:

> I was part of a virtual STEM accessibility conference for the last two
> days. In the wrap up, a few people complained that there isn't a lot of
> consistency among AT. Some read one character ok (in MathML) and another
> won't read it. I'm not sure whether anyone complained about inconsistency
> with the speech other than dropping characters (JAWS seems to drop parens
> in many cases where it shouldn't) or speaking something ambiguously. I
> volunteered that our group was considering issuing some baseline guidance
> to AT as to minimal support they should have and people felt that was a
> good idea.
>
> This relates back to defaults. Whether we add something to spec in an
> appendix or produce a note, it seems like the AT users at least feel it
> would be a good idea to have some minimal baseline all AT should support. I
> suspect that it would also be helpful for AT developers so they know "this
> is the important part" -- don't skip support for these notations and these
> characters.
>
>     Neil
>
>