A lot of why we got folks together for a sprint on accessibility when creating and using web-based scholarly and educational materials was to make sure that the different participants got to know each other, had a good feel for the kinds of expertise and tools that each organization (
see list below) specializes in, and could put faces to names. I think we accomplished those goals, and we also made some concrete plans for next steps. We spent the third half-day of the sprint looking at next steps for some realizable opportunities arising from the sprint although
some teams kept coding (see note below).
In case you missed my earlier posts on this sprint, here are some quick links to those and links to other posts about the sprint. one from Adrian Garcia, UI intern with OERPUB):
A Service Using MathJax and ChromeVox to generate MathML, SVG, and text-descriptions of math.
Benetech is eager to move forward with support for more accessible mathematics in a tangible way, because this fits into an existing project. So a group of us spent the last morning of the sprint determining which of our ideas and prototypes around accessible mathematics could be implemented relatively quickly and efficiently. The group working on
server-side mathjax for taking MathML and producing images and descriptive text for voicing math, had created a prototype quickly. Making it really work could be done fairly straight-forwardly, by building on the work of people at the sprint. It would need the following:
- The prototype server-side code that builds on Phil Schatz' code.
- MathJax running server-side via PhantomJS.
- ChromeVox's mathematics description generation made into a separate service called by the code and running via PhantomJS.
Why building this server-side tool would be immediately useful
- It could make EPUB books with mathematics accessible for learners using screen readers. EPUB3 calls for supporting MathML directly, but support for that is not available in most readers. Currently, publishers must produce images instead, which aren't helpful for visually-impaired scholars and learners. With this server-side component, publishers can use MathML as the source, and deliver images with descriptions for reading the math aloud.
- Pre-converting mathematics allows publishers more control over the generated mathematics and could make the reading experience faster for learners. Connexions, for instance, would like to ensure that their EPUBs and PDFs have mathematics that looks the same across devices. They would like to be able to generate both using MathJax.
Benetech, MathJax, and ChromeVox are working together to move this project forward. If you would like to help or keep up with the progess, please email Anh Bui,
anhb at benetech.org, to be added to the mailing list.
Aside about sprint lengths
A few of the teams building prototypes really
wanted to continue their work and kept coding. I am sure they would have
used at least a full day more coding. My friend Adam Hyde always
recommends a week-long sprint. He organizes book sprints where a group
writes a book in a week. Last summer, my team participated in a coding
sprint with Adam's Booktype project and about five other organizations.
That sprint lasted a week. It was fabulous. We picked the editor that we
based ours on, determined what approach we would take for mathematics
editing, and explored options for real-time collaboration. You can read
about it in earlier blog posts on that sprint.)
Participating organizations at the accessibility sprint
This sprint was supported by generous funding and in-kind support from
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