[WG: Accessibility] FW: Equations (and charts) in FCK

[Sean Keegan]

Hi Brian,

About two years ago I looked into this briefly with some of the work I
was doing with math and the Web.  Basically, I ended up using MS Word
with MathType to generate a Web page with MathML content.  I then did
a copy/paste of the code into the editor (I was in a code-view).

I was able to then get the math content to be rendered correctly in IE
with the MathPlayer plugin and Firefox, but it required a lot of
tweaking (it was more of a "could it be done" situation).  The problem
I encountered was that there needed to be some additional code in the
DTD of the page that specified MathML markup.  I was told this was not
going to be changed and I could not find anyone who was interested in
pursuing this angle at a higher level, so the conversation basically
ended.

Right now, there are problems across the board in attempting to
convert either MathML or LaTeX into Nemeth.  The AT industry is
working on getting support for Nemeth from MathML on a Web page, but I
have been hearing conflicting answers as to when this will actually
happen.  Supposedly the gh Player (DAISY player from gh Braille) was
supposed to support this functionality in DAISY-Text books in late
summer/fall, but I have not been able to get an official "yes/no"
response.

In terms of providing audio based math content, the only real success
I have seen is through using MS Word + MathType and then saving as a
MathML-based Web page.  While AT will read this math content, Nemeth
output is still lacking.

There are probably a few different directions in which to proceed now
that the technology has changed since I last looked at this issue.
However, I have not found any of the rich-text editors to be creating
either MathML or LaTeX that is functional with AT.

Take care,
sean

On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 1:33 PM, Richwine, Brian L <brichwin at indiana.edu> wrote:
> Over the last few semesters at the ATC, we’ve had to put more and more
> energy into make math accessible for our students. We’ve been disappointed
> over the state of accessibility solutions for mathematics, and what we see
> as the lack of a commonly recognized somewhat universal and workable
> solution.
>
>
>
> The email I am forwarding (below) come from the Building Sakai email list
> and reminds me to think creating accessible math in Sakai’s context. I’ve
> mused on it a bit, and read through recommendations such as the Mathematics
> section in the IMS Guidelines for Developing Accessible Learning
> Applications (http://ncam.wgbh.org/salt/guidelines/sec11.html#sec11_1), but
> nothing jumps out.
>
>
>
> Obviously, it would be great if Sakai users can create accessible content
> using Sakai. Does anyone have any experience with working solutions, or have
> suggestions on how content including accessible math could be created in
> Sakai?
>
>
>
> I haven’t seen any examples of accessible equation/expression editors on the
> web. Manually typing in MathML is rather labor intensive. Given the process
> outlined in the forwarded email below, I’d be tempted to suggest the LaTex
> could also be ran through a LaTex-to-Audio processor like AsTer
> (http://www.cs.cornell.edu/Info/People/raman/phd-thesis/html/root-thesis.html)
> and a link to the created audio file posted along with the image. But, we’ve
> had terribly inconsistent and erratic results with the Braille translation
> systems we’ve tried that claimed to convert LaTex to Nemeth code – and the
> LaTex code wasn’t generated by hand, but from the MathType editor!
>
>
>
> -Brian
>
>
>
>
>
> Brian Richwine
>
> Adaptive Technology Support Specialist
>
> Adaptive Technology and Accessibility Centers
>
> Indiana University - Bloomington/Indianapolis
>
> http://iuadapts.indiana.edu
>
> (812) 856-4112
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> From: sakai-dev-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org
> [mailto:sakai-dev-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org] On Behalf Of Algaze,
> Louis J
> Sent: Monday, November 16, 2009 3:45 PM
> To: Sakai Server
> Subject: [Building Sakai] Equations (and charts) in FCK
>
>
>
> We have been working on getting equations into Sakai and have come up with
> the following solution:
>
> Phase 1:
> Use Google Services to convert Tex to an image which uses an undocumented
> feature of Google charts, also in use by Google docs.
> Put the following code into the source of the FCK area <img
> src="http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=tx&chl=Tex goes here">.
> An example is: <img src="http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=tx&chl=f_p
>  = 3\sqrt {area}  = 3\sqrt {2 \times 10^6 }  = 53800Hz;\;53.8kHz">
> Please review Google usage policy at http://code.google.com/apis/chart/
> Additional variables available per the Google Chart specs
>
> Phase 2:
> Develop a caching system that will, when called (URL change above) will get
> the image from Google, store it locally and then deliver if it’s already
> cached reducing the number of hits to Google.
>
> Phase 3:
> Put a button in the FCK editor that allows easy input of Tex, something that
> takes care of the code around the Tex, and maybe some basic Tex creation.
>
> Phase 4:
> Replace Google with our own Tex to image conversion application.
>
> limitations discovered so far:
>
> Equations have a maximum length and spaces in TeX are not necessary
> Images are not https therefore some browsers display a warning, we might be
> able to change that in Phase 2
> “+” is not rendered correctly, use %2B
> Code to include in img link to make image background transparent is
> chf=bg,s,FFFFFF00
>
> We are in development of this solution and are confident that all 4 steps
> can be implemented.  We are also open to feedback to see how others have put
> equations in Sakai.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Louis
>
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