Bernhard Stöger

UMA: a system for universal mathematics accessibility

We describe the UMA system, a system developed under a multi-institution collaboration for making mathematics universally accessible. The UMA system includes translators that freely inter-convert mathematical documents transcribed in formats used by unsighted individual (Nemeth, Marburg) to those used by sighted individuals (LaTeX, Math-ML, OpenMath) and vice versa. The UMA system also includes notation-independent tools for aural navigation of mathematics. In this paper, we give an overview of the UMA system and the techniques used for realizing it.

A software model to support collaborative mathematical work between braille and sighted users

In this paper we describe a software model that we have developed within the framework of the MaWEn project (Mathematical Working Environment). Based on the MathML standard, this model enables collaboration between sighted people and users of Braille. It allows for synchronisation of Braille and graphical views of scientific contents as well as offering improved navigational functions for Braille users, in both reading and editing modes. The UMCL (Universal Maths Conversion Library) is used to support various national Braille Mathematical notations. After presenting the model, its implementation in MaWEn prototypes is described.

Mathematical Working Environment for the Blind Motivation and Basic Ideas

The past three decades saw considerable progress in access to information for the group of blind and visually impaired people: Thanks to modern information technology in the mainstream and to very specialized adaptive and assistive technologies, blind and visually impaired people are now able to deal independently and efficiently with almost every piece of information that is composed of pure text. Despite current strong trends towards graphical presentation, text still covers the majority of relevant contents for private and professional life, such that information access for the target group is currently accomplished to a very large extent. Despite intensive research efforts carried out over the last years, blind and visually impaired people are still excluded from an efficient usage and handling of graphical contents. Since Mathematics is presented in a highly graphical way most of the time, this exclusion implies considerable restrictions in access to Mathematics, too. Although “accessibility” is put in place, “usability” and especially support functionalities in “doing” mathematics are very low. This paper analyses the major issues, outlines the existing approaches to a possible solution and describes the current activities at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz, institute “integriert studieren” (Austria) towards a comprehensive software answer to this problem.

Mathematical Working Environments for the Blind: What is Needed Now?

Blind people encounter great difficulties in dealing with Mathematics. Based on an analysis of these problems, we shall outline possible strategies to overcome them through software support.

MathInBraille online converter

MathInBraille offers an online portal for converting mathematical formulae and e-Documents with mathematical content into Braille and spoken formats. MathInBraille provides an open conversion service, which can be used for free by anybody what should help to increase access, use and availability of math content for blind people.

Analysis of Implicit Didactics in Math Schoolbooks for Interactive Non-visual User Interface Development

Most math schoolbooks consist of practical and theoretical parts where the theoretical parts guide the students and explain the strategies on how to solve a given problem. These theoretical parts contain visual didactic information where the problem solving processes are explained using pictorial and spatial representations. So far, there is no workaround for non-visual user interfaces such as refreshable braille displays to represent this implicit visual information. This affects learning ability of visually impaired and blind students. In this paper, we present the results from analyzing these implicit notations and the possible strategies to help visually impaired and blind students benefiting from visual didactic information in math schoolbooks.

Developing Academic Skills among Print Disabled Students: IT Based Austrian-Wide Network for Service Provision

This paper presents the service provision system for print disabled students at Austrian Universities. An institute with full research and teaching tasks is established which in addition networks all small support units or centers at universities to enable a full scaled service provision.Students with print disabilities can decide whatever course they want to attend and wherever they want to study - a freedom which society basically guarantees to everybody.

The conventional Braille display state of the art and future perspectives

The conventional one-line Braille display is explained and discussed in great detail, the emphasis being laid on the ergonomic and software-technical aspects rather than the electronic or the electromechanical ones. Especially closely studied are the deeper aspects of text-based Braille display operation such as video attribute viewing and lightbar handling. In addition, some suggestions to improve present Braille display software are given, especially concerning the recently developed programs to access graphical user interfaces.

Gesture-Based Browsing of Mathematics

This paper is introducing a new concept which is combining gestures and speech in applications to help people navigate through Mathematica notebooks. The application can be used by all people, but it is targeting visually impaired people specifically. On the basis of the

Mensch-Maschine-Schnittstelle für blinde Computernutzer

1 gesture recognition algorithm our definition of gestures started and advanced to include the enhancements that took place in the