POSTS

Blind Math News

Summary

We look at some recent posts on the Blind Math mailing list. My main conclusion as a TeX developer is that many on that list prefer accessible HTML to accessible PDF. This is something that TeX developers need to be aware of.

If you're interested in this topic you're invited to drop in to my TeX Office Hour (every Thursday evening 6:30 to 7:30pm UK time).

The Blind Math list

The National Federation of the Blind is the largest and oldest organisation led by blind people in the US. It runs a Blind Math mailing list, which I've been reading and occassionaly posting to for about 10 years.

According to its home page, the Blind Math list

is a place where interested persons can discuss all issues related to blindness and math. Topics for discussion include (but are not limited to) sources for accessible texts, information about tactile and auditory graphing programs, suggestions for insuring that math lectures are accessible to blind students, and strategies used by blind math instructors. Anyone with an interest in this topic is free to join this group and contribute to the discussions.

Mostly, the list is practical. Someone has a problem, and they ask for help. There are also experts on the list, whose experience and opinions have special value. Sometimes the possibilities of technology are discussed. But mostly it's a place for blind users of adaptations and assistive technology.

As a sighted developer and a guest, I try to slow down and listen carefully on the Blind Math list. That way, I get much more out of it. I have very little experience of blindness, and these people are the experts.

I'm pleased that the NFB is run by blind people. That's part of the empowerment that accessibility is to provide.

Accessibility of LaTeX to PDF

This is the title of thread this month (January 2020) to the Blind Math list (see Links below). In it Nick Spohn asks

In my Matrices class this semester, the professor creates the quizzes and exams by typing them in latex and convert to pdf. In previous math courses, I receive my math and science quizzes/exams in a word doc and have everything typed in MathType. I write my work in Latex. Does anyone know if this method my professor is describing is accessible? I have never done math in this way. I am a Jaws user and I would appreciate any tips with navigating and accessing PDFs in this format.

The resulting discussion is very interesting. Nick provides a small, specific and well-stated problem. The responses, from people with experience of blindness, provided me with a journalistic report on the problems and solutions that blind math students have.

Learning LaTeX

Last month (December 2020) I wrote to the list, asking its members to share with me their experience of learning LaTeX (see Links below). I wanted feedback on an interactive page I'd written, and a website some others had written. Fortunately, I asked an open question.

I got back something different, and more valuable. People on the list shared with links to recommended resources. All of these links were to web pages. None were to PDF documents.

Further, all these web pages were created from a structured source document, which was then translated to HTML. (The source was variously XML, texinfo and restricted LaTeX).

For more information about this, and to see the roll of honour for the Learning LaTeX web pages, visit the Blind Math list (see Links below).

STEM in the 21st century

This is the title of a thread this month (January 2020) to the Blind Math list (see Links below).

In it Jonathan Godfrey provides what he calls a lengthy opinion piece. I find it full of gems, based on personal experience, clearly and concisely stated. Here's one

I used to use TeX4HT as my main tool for getting HTML from LaTeX source. This was and probably still is, an excellent tool. How much traction does it get though? Not much. Why? I don't know, but my current theory is that tools that aren't right under people's noses or automatically applied in the background just don't get as much traction.

Here's another

The pragmatic solution for many of my [teaching] colleagues was 20th century thinking. Let's produce a pdf exam, upload it onto our 21st century teaching platform, and get students to print it, write on it, and upload their work by taking photos of it.

Here's another

I believe the changes being forced on our education systems by a pandemic are a massive opportunity to see things change for the better. I think the colleagues who had to deal with piles of student photographs [of their work] will learn they did it the hard way and want to modernise. Even the mathematicians I work alongside will have to change.

Here's his view on PDF

I detest pdf as a format. I don't know if that bias can or ever will be reduced or removed. Even the best developments in the last ten years haven't yet given me the confidence to stop using HTML in favour of the most accessible pdf on offer today. The work being done is really awesome and I truly appreciate the efforts […]

My discomfort starts when I see that the best these efforts hope to achieve is what we already have in HTML documents. This was not true ten years ago when HTML didn't offer us a solution.

Conclusions

Based on the above main conclusion as a TeX developer is that many on that list prefer accessible HTML to accessible PDF. This is something that TeX developers need to be aware of.

I hope that this blog post will help disseminate this conclusion to web developers. All who are interested, including those on the Blind Math list, are invited to drop in to my TeX Office Hour (every Thursday evening 6:30 to 7:30pm UK time).

General

Blind Math mailing list