Re: [orca-list] orca to read latex

[Janina Sajka <janina rednote net>]

Emacspeak provides an environment for authoring latex content, so it has
to support a literal reading of latex markup. The author of Emacspeak,
is Dr. T.V. Raman, currently a scientist at Google Research, whose Ph.D
was in mathematics. Your best source of particular information would be
the Emacspeak list, where T.V. actively participates.

I do think it's your best option given your desire for literal markup
access. In case it's a concern, I would add that you can run Emacspeak in a Linux vm on any
convenient platform. In addition to my native Linux computers, I have a
VMware vm on a Macbook expressly for running Emacspeak, for example.

hth

Janina


Paula Estrella writes:
> 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
> > > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > > 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/

-- 

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/