DIAGRAM Center & Developments in Math Accessibility CSUN, San Diego – March 1, 2013

Page 2 DIAGRAM Center ● Make it easier, faster, and cheaper to create and use accessible –Tools –Standards –Research & Training –Strong community of content and technology creators and users ● 5-year Research & Development Center funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) ● Awarded to Benetech along with partners: –The Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) at WGBH –U.S. Fund for DAISY

Page 3 ● STEM Image Accessibility is Challenging

Page 4 What We’ve Done So Far ● Tools: –Poet: A Web based Tool for Creating Image Descriptions –Image Accessibility Coverage Checker for DAISY Books –Tobi integration: DAISY tool for multi-media production ● Standards: –DIAGRAM Content Model: data model for providing image metadata, including accessible alternatives ● Research and Training: –Training webinars, product evaluations, surveys –

Page 5 DIAGRAM and Math ● Improving access to math is among our goals ● Community with strong math expertise ● DIAGRAM Math Working Group ● Exploring some core math challenges...

Page 6 Math Accessibility Challenge #1 Mathematical expressions are often presented as images in textbooks.

Page 7 The Case for MathML ● Normalized, unambiguous expressions that can be rendered or transformed in many different ways ● Standard gaining traction globally ● NIMAS recommends:...MathML be used to improve the accessibility of mathematical and scientific content in core instructional materials...as the most effective method of providing accessible print instructional materials involving mathematical and scientific content to students who are blind or who have print disabilities.

Page 8 Math Accessibility Challenge #2 MathML can be difficult and expensive to tag.

Page 9 Poet Image Description Tool ● Open source, web-based tool for adding image descriptions to eBooks (DAISY) ● For use by authors, publishers, accessibility providers ● Designed to: –Quickly identify all images in an eBook –Allow tagging of “essential” images –Create and edit descriptions by multiple authors –Moderate and approve descriptions –Enable crowd-sourcing

Page 10 Math Helper in Poet Tool Converts ascii math input into MathML

Page 11 Math Accessibility Challenge #3 Math diagrams, graphs, and other related images can also benefit from multi-modal accessibility.

Page 12 In Beta: Web MathTrax ● Web-based version of NASA’s MathTrax graphing calculator ● Select a shape or equation, input parameters and receive back –Automated text description of resulting graph (developed with experts) –SVG of resulting graph to facilitate tactile production ● Gives content creators accessible images for common graphs ● Pilot targets automated text descriptions for first year algebra

Page 13 Web Math Trax

Page 14 Math Accessibility Challenge #4 It’s difficult to author math in an accessible manner (e.g., how to show work for an online course)?

Page 15 WAVES ● DIAGRAM subcontract with gh, LLC to tackle this issue ● Dave Schleppenbach will cover in his talk

Page 16 Math Accessibility Challenge #5 Even with underlying MathML, math can be difficult to render effectively and to navigate.

Page 17 Voicing MathML via MathJax ● Experimental only ● Leveraging MathJax makes it available to more users ● Benetech project via Google Summer of Code ● Project uncovered lots challenges ● Demo available at

Page 18 Math Accessibility Challenge #6 Training and research is required to help educators, publishers and others create effective accessible math.

Page 19 DIAGRAM Training and Research in Math ● DIAGRAM webinars: practices/training.html practices/training.html –“I’m using it TODAY to get math instructors excited about accessibility resources and creating lab manuals as accessible eBooks!” ● MathML support chart in DIAGRAM Product Matrices: complete.html complete.html ● Collaboration with MeTRC to study effectiveness of math description

Page 20 Other Emerging Math Tools from the DIAGRAM Community ● LEAN Math (John Gardner, ViewPlus) ● Stanford SCRIBE (Sean Keegan, Stanford) ● Voicing MathML –iBooks Author and VoiceOver on iPad

Page 21 For More Information JOIN THE COMMUNITY AND THE CONVERSATION! ● ● Anh Bui Director of Product Strategy and the DIAGRAM Center Benetech