Re: [orca-list] orca to read latex



Good points, Fredrik. I think latex eminently worth learning. I wish I'd
picked it up sooner in my life with computers because it's still a
viable option today, whereas so many tools I once used daily and heavily
haved gone to the big desktop in the sky.

Janina

Fredrik Larsson writes:
Hi,

I think as a blind student, I would learn LaTex code. This also gives me the
possibility to write nice documents with advanced science and readable
bysighted people, such as teachers and coming friends at work. I know it is
verbose, but so is also AsciiMath and MathML.

My first thought for reading was to use latex2html which make nice HTML code
from the document. The formulas will be images though, but with alt texts
corresponding to the formulas. It might be a little less verbose since you
get rid of some LaTeX commands but not the problem of too verbose formulas.
There is also latex2rtf but I don't know how accessible RTF it produce.

However, my point is that latex2html is open source and it should be
possible, maybe as some kind of plug-in framework, to change what html that
is produced by what latex command. In that way, one can construct a mode
where formulas on the alt text will be something else, for example x greater
than or equals to y, or just x>=y.

Fredrik

On Sun, 14 Sep 2014, Paula Estrella wrote:

Hello, thanks for all the replies! Actually the students need to read
content written in latex, in particular study material that the
teachers write in latex and then publish in pdf, but the pdfs are, as
you point out, not a good format for screen readers, that's why
students try to understand the contents from the latex source. And by
literally I mean that latex code gets read literally, for ex. $x \gt
z$ is read "dollar sign x backslash g t z dollar sign" and students
have to mentally reconstruct what that means but if it were read "x
gretaller than z" it would be easier

Does emacspeak read latex in the same way (what I call literally) or
it produces more natural reading?

Thanks again,
Paula

On Sun, Sep 14, 2014 at 1:15 AM, Janina Sajka <janina rednote net> wrote:
Yes, for output one would be better served by MathML.

Unfortunatly, I believe the only good MathML readers for blind users are
proprietary applications running MS Windows:

http://www.dessci.com


Browser support for MathML has been going backwards in recent years with
Google pulling support from Blink.

Janina



Alex Midence writes:
Her students are probably trying to read output not input.  I've been there.
It's hard to make out the math in a pdf document created with LaTeX with
screen readers.


On 9/13/2014 7:27 AM, Janina Sajka wrote:
Hi,

You should look at emacspeak for the best speech based access to latex
authoring.

http://emacspeak.sf.net

It provides solid speech support for various tex modes of emacs.

I have also used vim's latex mode with Speakup.

Or, if using refreshable braille display, brltty with either emacs or
vim in a console is probably best.

I'm unaware there's any particular support for latex in blind user
oriented graphical AT such as Orca, and it's not the tool of choise for
emacs and vim.

Janina

Paula Estrella writes:
Hello, I'm new to the list so I apologize if this topic has already
been discussed, in
that case point me to the right threads.

We're trying to assist our blind students in computer science and at
the moment the option chosen is orca but it gets difficult when they
have to read maths in latex, so the question is: is there any orca
module to specifically read latex (in a more natural way than
literally)? if not, do you think it would be too difficult or of any
interest to contribute to orca by developing such a module?

Thanks a lot for any information
Paula Estrella
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Visit http://live.gnome.org/Orca for more information on Orca.
The manual is at http://library.gnome.org/users/gnome-access-guide/nightly/ats-2.html
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Log bugs and feature requests at http://bugzilla.gnome.org
Find out how to help at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/HowCanIHelp

--

Janina Sajka,   Phone:  +1.443.300.2200
                       sip:janina asterisk rednote net
               Email:  janina rednote net

Linux Foundation Fellow
Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup:       http://a11y.org

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Chair,  Protocols & Formats     http://www.w3.org/wai/pf
       Indie UI                        http://www.w3.org/WAI/IndieUI/

_______________________________________________
orca-list mailing list
orca-list gnome org
https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/orca-list
Visit http://live.gnome.org/Orca for more information on Orca.
The manual is at http://library.gnome.org/users/gnome-access-guide/nightly/ats-2.html
The FAQ is at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/FrequentlyAskedQuestions
Log bugs and feature requests at http://bugzilla.gnome.org
Find out how to help at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/HowCanIHelp

_______________________________________________
orca-list mailing list
orca-list gnome org
https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/orca-list
Visit http://live.gnome.org/Orca for more information on Orca.
The manual is at http://library.gnome.org/users/gnome-access-guide/nightly/ats-2.html
The FAQ is at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/FrequentlyAskedQuestions
Log bugs and feature requests at http://bugzilla.gnome.org
Find out how to help at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/HowCanIHelp

-- 

Janina Sajka,   Phone:  +1.443.300.2200
                        sip:janina asterisk rednote net
                Email:  janina rednote net

Linux Foundation Fellow
Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup:       http://a11y.org

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Chair,  Protocols & Formats     http://www.w3.org/wai/pf
        Indie UI                        http://www.w3.org/WAI/IndieUI/



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