achieving accessibility in mathematics and other scientific fields
TRANSCRIPT
Achieving accessibility in mathematics and other scientific fields
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What is accessibility?
inter action
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Types of impairments
Learning or communicating
disabilitiesdyslexia, autism, etc
Visual impairmentComplete or partial, and color blindness
Hearing impairment
Complete or partial
Motor or dexterity impairment
e.g. paralysis
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Whom does it affect?
in the context of a Learning Management System
such as …
Content creator
Teacher
Student
(Administrator)
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When does accessibility play a role ?
Content creation
Content interpretation
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Accessible formulas verbalised
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Types of verbalisation
2 x+1 2x + 1
Grammatical two to the power of x plus one end exponent
two to the power of x end exponent plus one
Prosodic two to the power of [pause] x plus one
two to the power of x [pause] plus one
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Limits of verbalisation
and Pros Cons
Grammatical unambiguous more complex
Prosodic simple ambiguous
What happens with the difference between
and ?
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The state of the art
“Currently there is a complete mismatch between mainstream software for mathematics and existing screen readers when it comes to multimodal presentations of formulae. In most cases formulae are printed on the screen using graphical glyphs. Hence, learning environments are basically unusable for mathematics by people with disabilities such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, and any visual impairment.”
Mika Seppälä, Florida State University
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The plugin approach
screen reader
plug-in
MathML formula
• The plug-in transforms the MathML into a textual description ready for verbalisation.
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• dependance on external elements and technologies
• incompatibilities on different devices and OS
• convivial with CSS and text formatting
• The formula adapts to user parametrisation of screen
The plugin approach : weaknesses and strengths
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The image approach
screen reader
alternative text
image
• The alternative text is automatically generated at the moment of formula creation.
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The image approach
• The formula is stored as an image.• The image contains a standard tag
“alternative text” with a textual description.
• In this example: “F open parentheses x close parentheses equal integral subscript a superscript b f open parentheses x close parentheses d x”
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• little conviviality with CSS and different text styles
• by enlargement of the formula, it loses quality due to extrapolation
• independence of plugins and screen reader produces a robust system
• transversally deployable in different devices and Operating Systems
The image approach : weaknesses and strengths
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Accessibility for content creators?
Content creator
Teacher Student
• Tools can also support the content creation process by differently able professionals
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Accessibility for content creators?
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Thanks for your att enti on
car les@wir is .com
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