Making Math Accessible

A Flexible Design for Accessible Spoken Math: HCI2009 Conference, July 22-24, 2009

This year at the Human-Computer Interface (HCI) International conference I'll be giving a talk about some novel aspects of the forthcoming MathPlayer 3 design such as rule-based speech and user control over speech. HCI is a large research-oriented conference with several tracks that deal with accessibility issues. Talks cover a huge range of topics from physical aspects of human computer interaction, such as lighting to accessibility issues for those with various disabilities. It is a great opportunity to see what what ideas people are exploring. If you will be at the conference on Thursday, please stop by my talk.

To see other conferences where Design Science products and technology will be demonstrated, refer to the Events page on our website.

Creating and Using Accessible Mathematical Content: AHEAD conference, July 20-25, 2009

The Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) hosts an annual conference for professionals in the fields of higher education and disability. This year's conference will be in Louisville KY, where Steve Noble from The University of Louisville will present a session titled Creating and Using Accessible Mathematical Content. Many educators are now required to produce accessible materials for their own students. One of the products Steve will demonstrate is our newest product, MathDaisy. He will show how easy it is to use MathDaisy with Microsoft's "Save As DAISY" Word add-in to create accessible math materials from Microsoft Word.

To see other conferences where Design Science products and technology will be demonstrated, refer to the Events page on our website.

The Path to Accessible Math at U Guelph Conference

The University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada is hosting Aiming for Accessibility: Creating Barrier-Free Information and Communication, a conference aimed at raising awareness of IT-related accessibility issues and providing techniques for addressing them. Part of the motivation for having the conference is the pending requirements of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), which may have important impacts on Universities in Ontario. The conference is in Rozanski Hall, University of Guelph on May 27.

I'll be presenting a session in the Accessible Web Programming, Document and Multimedia Design "stream" titled The Path to Accessible Math.  My talk starts at 1pm and will cover how to create and deliver documents that contain accessible math.  I'll give some background on the topic first, and then get into the creation and delivery aspects.  Even though I'm giving the talk remotely, I'm going to be leaving lots of time for Q&A.

To see other conferences where we'll be exhibiting and speaking, refer to the Events page on our website.

News from the CSUN Disabilities Conference

Back in March I attend CSUN.  It was a little smaller this year, but it is still by far the biggest disability conference around.  I spoke with many different people, some representing vendors, some representing their schools, and some representing themselves. I couldn't possibly list everyone by name, but I do want to use this space to thank all of you for your comments and insights.  It is the people that go to CSUN that make CSUN such an exciting conference to attend.

There was lots of news and excitement at CSUN that surrounded DAISY this year:

• "Save as DAISY for Word" was officially released at the start of CSUN, although I didn't see any formal announcement at CSUN. You can read the press release and you can find links to it from DAISY's page on Save As DAISY - Microsoft.
• Our soon to be released MathDaisy product works with the Save as DAISY Word add-in to make the math in DAISY books accessible.
• There are two math-aware DAISY book players:  Dolphin's EasyReader and gh's PLAYER. In the Design Science booth, both Paul Topping (Design Science's President and CEO) and I were busy showing off how easy it is to create DAISY books with math and what the result looks like on those two players. People were impressed.

I gave a joint talk with Dennis Leas from gh and Masakazu Suzuki from Kyushu University entitled Word, Math, and DAISY: It All Adds Up. Given that the talk was at 8am, a surprisingly large number of people turned up.  I don't think they were disappointed.  Our talk was split among the three of us:

• Prof Suzuki showed InftyReader converting a scanned document into a Word document with the math being represented as MathType objects.
• I then took that document, fixed up the few problems it had, and used Save As Daisy (together with MathType and MathDaisy) to create a DAISY book.
• Dennis Leas delivered up the final course (his metaphor) showing it playing in the gh Player.

All along the way, we explained what was going on behind the scenes, things to watch out for, and things to be amazed by :-).

There were at least 10 talks about DAISY this year:

• The DAISY newsletter mentions our talk and some of the other talks.
• Dennis and I even managed to get our picture in the newsletter; we only seem to be able to get our picture in publications targeted at people who are blind...

For those that missed it, a 24 year run of CSUN being in Los Angeles came to an end this year.  Next year the conference will be in San Diego. No more having to walk between two hotels. Hopefully that means even more time to talk with people.  I hope to see many of those I met this year at CSUN next year.

More Good News from ATIA: Pearson adds MathML to their Textbooks!

At the ATIA (Assistive Technology Industry Association) conference last week one the largest textbook publishers, Pearson, announced that they are going to produce "HTMLbooks" and that HTMLbooks would make use of MathML for mathematical content!  Even better, this is not some "special ed" version of the book, but a universal design book aimed at all students.  This is the news that many of us have been waiting for:  accessible textbooks as a standard product from a large publisher.  For those of you who aren't familiar with the benefits of using MathML for math, there is a summary on our accessibility solutions pages. Now that a major publisher has committed to making textbooks with accessible math, my guess is that we will see some more publishers make announcements.  2009 could be a watershed year for accessibility!

American Council of the Blind Annual Convention, July 5-12, 2008

I'll be participating in a panel session at the American Council of the Blind Annual Convention, July 5-12 at the Galt House Hotel & Suites in Louisville, Kentucky. The American Council of the Blind is one of the nation's leading membership organizations of blind and visually impaired people. The panel session, Books Unbound: How Technology is Writing a New Chapter on Accessible Textbooks, will also include presenters from the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Center, Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, Bookshare.org and the National Braille Press. During my segment, I'll be giving folks an overview of the latest news on math support in assistive technology products and how the provision of MathML within electronic textbook files is going to make fully accessible math textbooks a reality for people with visual impairments, with support for both math-to-speech and math-to-braille access. If you're going to be in Louisville for ACB, be sure to come to this session and say hello. For details on the time and location of this session, as well as information on other conferences where we will be speaking or exhibiting, see our Events Schedule.

Kentucky AHEAD Conference, May 20-21, 2008

I will be giving a presentation during the 2008 conference of the Kentucky Association on Higher Education and Disability, which is being held May 20-21 in Carrollton, Kentucky. The KY-AHEAD conference theme this year is Re-Tooling the Disability Services Toolbox. My session is entitled Technology for Accessible Math, and is scheduled for May 21 at 10:30 AM. I'll be talking about the expanding toolbox of assistive technology products that support accessible math, as well as the new functionality we are developing for MathPlayer, such as customized math speech and Nemeth braille output. For information on this and other conferences where we will be speaking or exhibiting, see our Events Schedule.

Multiple Perspectives Conference, Columbus Ohio, April 22-23, 2008

I will be presenting a talk during the Multiple Perspectives on Access, Inclusion, and Disability 2008 Conference: Looking Back & Thinking Ahead at The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. This will be the eighth year the university has held this conference, which focuses on various aspects of disability inclusion and accessibility in education. My session is entitled Accessible Math Technology: A Status Update, and will be held on April 23 at 10:30 AM. During my presentation, I'll be talking about the assistive technology products which support accessible math, as well as work to enhance math access in MathPlayer such as customized math speech and Nemeth braille support. For information on this and other conferences where we will be speaking or exhibiting, see our Events Schedule.

CSUN Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference, Los Angeles CA, Mar 12-15, 2008

We will be exhibiting at the CSUN Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott Hotel in Los Angeles CA. Stop by booth 330 and see the accessibility features of MathPlayer and MathType. Since this is the first CSUN conference since math was made an official part of DAISY, we expect a lot of interest in math accessibility. Neil Soiffer and Steve Noble will also be speaking in four different sessions during the conference. For a detailed listing of these sessions, and for information on other conferences where we will be speaking or exhibiting, see our Events Schedule.

LDA International Conference, Chicago IL, Feb 27-Mar 1, 2008

I will be participating in a panel session at the Learning Disabilities Association Annual International Conference at the Hilton Chicago Hotel in Chicago, IL. LDA is the largest non-profit volunteer organization advocating for individuals with learning disabilities in the nation, and will be celebrating its 45th anniversary at the conference. The panel session is entitled NIMAS and IDEA 2004: Student Success Through Accessible Instructional Materials, and will be held on February 27 at 8:30 AM. For information on this and other conferences where we will be speaking or exhibiting, see our Events Schedule.