Evaluating solutions to process, view and listen mathematical formula within an accessible context
- 1. Mireia Ribera, Miquel Centelles, Alberto Huélamo, Bruno Splendiani, Marina Salse ULD Conference 2013 - 13/02/2013
- 2. LIS Department – University of Barcelona (Spain) Grup Adaptabit: Working group on digital accessibility for teaching, research and teaching innovation Bruno Splendiani (2013) – splendiani@ub.edu 2
- 3. Background Issue Proposal Methodology Further work Bruno Splendiani (2013) – splendiani@ub.edu 3
- 4. Accessible teaching documents project Every educational institution must ensure access to the information for all students Goal: Promote equal opportunities / full integration into university academic life by the use of accessible materials in academic community Provide templates for the creation of most widespread teaching documents, and easy procedures to create alternate versions of them. Bruno Splendiani (2013) – splendiani@ub.edu 4
- 5. Outputs “Guides for creating Accessible Digital Contents” Templates ▪ Teaching documents in academic community (exams, exercises, tutorials, lessons and slides) ▪ Best format suited to each context (Office, PDF, LaTex…) ▪ Adaptation to the needs of blind and low vision students and students with dyslexia Bruno Splendiani (2013) – splendiani@ub.edu 5
- 6. Templates for the conversions to accessible digital formats, but Mathematical notation / formulae present specific accessibility barriers and impose specific requirements in conversion Why? Bruno Splendiani (2013) – splendiani@ub.edu 6
- 7. Most word processors process mathematical notations/formulae through a codification system or graphical formats procedures. Not suitable for assistive technology (e.g. JAWS, Zoom Text) Consequences Barriers to blind and low-vision people Barriers to people with dyslexia or Attention- Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) Bruno Splendiani (2013) – splendiani@ub.edu 7
- 8. Solution: MathML XML language for the markup of mathematical formulae Renderized audio of electronic documents Expressions magnifiers (low-vision users) Limitations ▪ Mathematicians writing on text processors or in LaTex, not in MathML ▪ MathML not fully supported by browsers Bruno Splendiani (2013) – splendiani@ub.edu 8
- 9. Test which text editor/LaTex and browser best creates and renders mathematical formulae in MathML Obtain evidences of capability on writing mathematical formulae Obtain evidences of capability and quality on viewing and listening to mathematical formulae. Bruno Splendiani (2013) – splendiani@ub.edu 9
- 10. Bruno Splendiani (2013) – splendiani@ub.edu 10
- 11. Testbed was designed with two main components: Catalogue of a selection of 139 different formulae (LibreOffice Math 3.3.2) Bruno Splendiani (2013) – splendiani@ub.edu 11
- 12. Three text processors + one LaTex editor with specific capabilities for processing mathematical notation Text processors ▪ MS Word 2007 (12.0.6661.5000) SP3 MSO (12.0.6662.5000) ▪ MS Word 2007 ▪ MS Word 2007 with MathType 6.0 (DesignScience) ▪ LibreOffice Math 3.3.2 Latex editor ▪ MiKTeX 2.9 TeXnicCentre 1.0 The most used editors by faculty members of UB Bruno Splendiani (2013) – splendiani@ub.edu 12
- 13. Results of the formulae processed with the editors were converted into MathML Bruno Splendiani (2013) – splendiani@ub.edu 13
- 14. To view and listen on different internet browsers the results of conversion to MathML Visualization Firefox 12.0 (Win)MathML native support Opera 12.02 (Win) MathML native support Safari 6.01 (Mac) MathML native support Visualization and Listening Internet Explorer 8 ( + MathPlayer Plug-in) Bruno Splendiani (2013) – splendiani@ub.edu 14
- 15. Two different indicators Visualization review Quality of displays values Not acceptable display; acceptable display; best display Listening review Quality of reading (Mathplayer options : Spanish language / Reading for the blind) MathPlayer doesn’t read the formula; MathPlayer reads the formula partially; MathPlayer reads the formula correctly Bruno Splendiani (2013) – splendiani@ub.edu 15
- 16. MS Word empowered with MathType best solution in terms of number of symbols correctly interpreted quality of displays for visualization quality of readings for listening Strengths the high quality in visualization of big operators (sum, prod, coprod…) and resizable delimiters Better results even compared to LibreOffice Limitations 6 mathematical expressions not rendered (out of 139) Bruno Splendiani (2013) – splendiani@ub.edu 16
- 17. LaTex 11 mathematical expressions not rendered (out of 139) By default LaTex exports formulas in a nonstandard typography limitation in viewing and in Mathplayer listening Bruno Splendiani (2013) – splendiani@ub.edu 17
- 18. IE+MathPlayer visualization of expressions processed by MSWord 2007+MathType is the best solution Firefox is the better browser without plugins Opera lowest performance Safari quite good, but bad performance with accents Bruno Splendiani (2013) – splendiani@ub.edu 18
- 19. Best results on IE+MathPlayer is MS Word 2007+MathType LaTeX MiKTeX 2.9 + TeX2ht lower performance 19
- 20. Recommendations addressed to University professors (research based) Manuals for the creation on how to convert Latex formulas and how to create formulas with MathType Share results data Conversion from paper (Inftyreader) Bruno Splendiani (2013) – splendiani@ub.edu 20
- 21. Questions Opinions Suggestions… splendiani@ub.edu 21