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

[Ken Petri]

No solutions that I know of for Nemeth from MathML. And this is not directly
related to your post, but if anyone needs a terrific, free MathML editor,
have a look at InftyEditor.

Best,
ken
-------------------------------------------------------
 Ken Petri
 Program Director
 OSU Web Accessibility Center
 102D Pomerene Hall
 1760 Neil Avenue
 Columbus, Ohio  43210
 Phone: (614) 292-1760
 Fax: (614) 292-4190
 mailto:petri.1 at osu.edu
-------------------------------------------------------


On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 1:47 PM, Sean Keegan <skeegan at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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> >
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> >
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