I thought EASI listers would be interested in the following press release
about making math accessible.  Some basic accessibility will be available
in the pending release of MathPlayer 2.0 expected early in 2004.  It
provides a word description of math that integrates seamlessly with screen
readers.  It works with Window-Eyes, TextHelp, and Dolphine screen
readers.  Freedom needs to fix a problem with their MSAA support but has
promised to do that in their next patch so it will work with Jaws as well.

Enjoy!

>X-Sieve: CMU Sieve 2.2
>From: Bruce Virga <[log in to unmask]>
>To: Bruce Virga <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Mathematics Accessibility
>Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2003 08:23:45 -0800
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>
>Hi,
>If you are interested in MathML, or involved in scientific publishing,
>research or education, you may find this of interest. The full press release
>is pasted below, or you can read it on our site.
>
>         http://www.dessci.com/en/company/press/releases/default.htm
>
>Please let me know if you have any questions.
>
>Sincerely,
>Bruce Virga
>_____________________________________
>
>For Immediate Release
>
>Design Science Awarded NSF Grant to Research Mathematics Accessibility
>
>Plans to Bring Math Web Content under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act
>
>LONG BEACH, California - December 9, 2003 - Design Science announced today
>it has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to research ways
>of making mathematical content accessible to people with vision
>disabilities. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act mandates that federal
>agencies make web content accessible to those with visual disabilities,
>including blindness, low vision, dyslexia and other learning disabilities.
>While assistive technologies exist today that make textual content
>accessible to such people, making the same technology work for mathematical
>content has been problematic. With this grant, Design Science hopes to make
>significant progress toward the goal of making math accessible.
>
>The ultimate goal is to enable those with vision disabilities to be able to
>work with mathematical content in web pages. The research project will
>explore the audio rendering of math as an enhancement to commercially
>available screen reader software that can already speak the non-math text in
>web pages to the reader. Some of the enhancements to be examined are
>keyboard navigation within a mathematical expression, highlighting of
>sub-expressions as they are spoken, and enlarging the visual size of math
>expressions for partially sighted readers. "The current practice of
>publishing math on the web as PDF or equation images makes the math
>essentially invisible to the vision-impaired reader. Embedding the math in
>the web page as MathML allows us to do much better." said Dr. Neil Soiffer,
>Senior Scientist at Design Science and the grant's Principal Investigator.
>
>MathML is an XML-based language for representing mathematics that was
>published as a Recommendation by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in
>1998. Since MathML captures the meaning and structure of mathematics, it
>enables a wide range of applications. In addition to making it possible to
>have math spoken to visually disabled readers, it also enables searching for
>mathematical expressions within content and interoperability with the
>growing number of computational applications that understand MathML. "MathML
>enables a new generation of web technology that focuses on the meaning of
>math and science concepts, not merely its display. Mathematics is the
>language of science and technology -- it deserves to be just as accessible
>as textual content." said Dr. Robert Miner, Design Science's Director of New
>Product Development. Design Science is an industry leader in MathML
>technology, with extensive MathML expertise, several MathML-based
>product-lines and market penetration into education and research. So
>developing new ways of adding value to MathML-aware content is a natural
>step for Design Science.
>
>About Design Science, Inc.
>Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Long Beach, California, Design Science
>develops software used by educators, scientists and publishing
>professionals, including MathType, Equation Editor in Microsoft Office,
>WebEQ, MathFlow, MathPlayer and TeXaide, to communicate on the web and in
>print. For more information please visit http://www.dessci.com.
>
>###
>
>Contact:
>Bruce Virga
>VP, Sales & Marketing
>[log in to unmask]
>562-433-0685
>
>Design Science, Inc.
>"How Science Communicates"
>MathType, WebEQ, MathPlayer, MathFlow, Equation Editor, TeXaide
>http://www.dessci.com

John Gardner
Professor and Director, Science Access Project
Department of Physics
Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR 97331-6507
tel: (541) 737 3278
FAX: (541) 737 1683
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
URL: http://dots.physics.orst.edu

-------------------------------------------------------------
 See EASI Special October Bonus offer at http://easi.cc/clinic.htm
EASI November courses are:
Barrier-free E-learning, Accessible Internet Multimedia and Business Benefits of Accessible IT Design:
http://easi.cc/workshop.htm
EASI Home Page http://www.rit.edu/~easi

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