Donal Fitzpatrick

Towards a Universal Maths Conversion Library

The study of Mathematics and Sciences have always been a difficult problem for blind students especially because of the complexity of Braille mathematical notations. Various projects developed converters allowing people to translate a formula from mainstream notations (like LATEX or MathML) to Braille notations and vice versa. Today a new generation of tools aims at facilitating the understanding of the formulas by blind users, and the communication between sighted and Braille users. The project of Universal Maths Conversion Library is born from the decision of 6 organisations both American and European to join their efforts in that field.

Spoken mathematics using prosody, earcons and spearcons

Printed notation provides a highly succinct and unambiguous description of the structure of mathematical formulae in a manner which is difficult to replicate for the visually impaired. A number of different approaches to the verbal presentation of mathematical material have been explored, however, the fundamental differences between the two modalities of vision and audition are often ignored. This use of additional lexical cues, spatial audio or complex hierarchies of non-speech sounds to represent the structure and scope of equations may be cognitively demanding to process, and this can detract from the perception of the mathematical content. In this paper, a new methodology is proposed which uses the prosodic component found in spoken language, in conjunction with a limited set of spatialized earcons and spearcons, to disambiguate the structure of mathematical formulae. This system can potentially represent this information in an intuitive and unambiguous manner which takes advantage of the specific strengths and capabilities of audition.

Mathematics: how and what to speak

Access to mathematical content for blind and vision impaired people continues to be a problem. The inherently visual nature of this form of presentation is neither easily or readily accessible using the linear representations in common usage by this community This paper proposes methodology for depicting mathematics in a non-visual manner. It will be shown how, through the prosodic component found in spoken language, the structure of mathematical formulae may be disambiguated. We will also discuss lexical cues which can be added to the utterance to further reduce the ambiguity which can be very evident in this form of material

Distance Learning of Graphically Intensive Material for Visually Impaired Students

Historically the conveying of graphical materials to visually impaired students has been difficult to achieve. Various methods have evolved that aim to solve the problem, ranging from those based on technology to the construction of models which the learner, relying on tactile representations, can employ. The various methods used to depict graphically intensive data assume the presence of a teacher, or the inclusion of Braille labels. If a learner is operating in a distance-learning environment, or cannot read Braille there is little to no access to graphical material. This paper highlights the various methods used to convey diagrams to blind people. It outlines the perceived problems with applying these techniques to a distance-learning environment, and describes solutions which have been devised as part of the EU-sponsored project AHVITED (Audio Haptics for Visually Impaired Training and Education at a Distance) [1].

Teaching Science subjects to Blind Students

Access to the disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) for blind and vision impaired people continues to be a problem. The inherently visual nature of much of the material found in these areas is neither easily or readily accessible using the linear representations in common usage by this community. This paper proposes methodologies for depicting visually complex data in a non-visual manner. It will be shown how, through the prosodic component found in spoken language, the structure of mathematical formulae may be disambiguated. The use of haptic technology will also be discussed in relation to its role in depicting diagrammatic material.

Multi-modal Mathematics: Conveying Math Using Synthetic Speech and Speech Recognition

Over the past decade, the notion of multi-modal access to technology has moved from the realms of science fiction to reality. It is not now unthinkable to communicate with a machine using voice recognition software, and to have the computers’ response spoken in a voice comparable in quality to a human.

Speaking Technical Documents: Using Prosody to Convey Textual and Mathematical Material

Though Braille is the most common means whereby blind people can access information of any kind, it is rapidly being superseded by spoken versions of the same material. Owing to the bulky nature of Braille, the ability to transport a small portable computer, rather than multiple volumes of a book has far greater appeal.However, to date the monotonous nature of synthetic speech has meant that both highly technical information, and the more visually oriented presentational styles (such as mathematics) have been largely inaccessible to blind people. While the ability to approximate human prosody is apparent in some synthesisers, these features are not utilised by the developers of screen-access software. Consequently, the ability to present anything other than purely textual material is distinctly lacking in this type of software. This lack ensures that blind students and professionals working in the scientific or technical arena are to a great extent prevented from reading large amounts of relevant material.This paper describes a model of verbalising mathematics using spoken audio. The language of written mathematics can be translated in to an English representation based on the grammatical structures inherent in the language. The model discussed here encapsulates the structure of an equation in the most intuitive form of communication available; natural speech, while the content is enhanced by the use of alterations in the prosody (inflection) of the voice. It concludes with a discussion of some current areas of investigation. These include the application of certain acoustic affects to the speech signal to convey auditorily, those visual cues so readily apparent from the spatially oriented layout of mathematical content.

Producing Accessible Statistics Diagrams in R

Blind people are at risk of being left behind in the information age if efforts are not made to improve the access to information that is not traditionally conveyed in text, whether that text be accessed in braille, audio, or a computers screen reading software. Most graphics summarise a scene or some aspect of data that the author hopes will inform their audience; good statistical graphics are commonly used to great effect for the sighted world, but are practically useless to a blind audience. Our work aims to provide an accessible way for blind users to easily, efficiently, and most importantly accurately, explore and query the data contained in diagrams such as bar charts, box plots, time series, and many more. We employ the statistical software environment R to compute rich semantics for these diagrams and make them web accessible by supporting screen reading and interactive exploration.

Combining web services and DAISY for the production and delivery of audio tactile diagrams

In recent years audio tactile diagrams have emerged as a viable method of providing blind learners with access to diagrammatical material. It has proven beneficial, but obstacles remain to its widespread adoption, especially in situations where a teacher may not be skilled in tactile production. Current approaches to audio tactile production contain limitations in various areas namely reusability, producer support and interoperability. This paper discusses the Audio Tactile Construction and Delivery Framework (ATCDF), which is a service based approach for the production and delivery of audio tactile diagrams. The approach separates audio tactile diagrams into their component parts, which are then stored independently of one another in repositories. The content in the repositories can be searched for, retrieved and reused independently of one another. Completed audio tactiles can be exported for delivery using the DAISY 3 standard, forming a DAISY based audio tactile. The approach has benefits in areas of reusability, interoperability and producer support.

Is Web-Based Computer-Aided Translation (CAT) Software Usable for Blind Translators?

In spite of the progress made to date in the area of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), recent experience reports by end users as well as research work have suggested that leading desktop-based Computer-Aided Translation (CAT) tool providers fail to consider the particular needs of screen reader users when developing their software. The study presented in this paper was conducted to assess the usability of two popular online CAT tools (Matecat and Memsource) that could serve as an alternative solution to inaccessible desktop applications. Findings indicate that Matecat is significantly more usable than Memsource, although changes would be needed in the former for blind translators to be able to perform a translation job completely autonomously and efficiently. Overall, our study suggests that accessibility awareness is still low in the translation technology industry, and that further research and development is needed in to guarantee equal opportunities for all in the translation market.