Hello, The idea behind access2science was the lack of information out there on how to make STEM subjects accessible. I know that John Gardner is willing to have information from people to add to the site. Michael Whapples On 09/05/2012 15:45, Kirk Reiser wrote: > Hi Michael: Thank you very much for your informative response. I will > sift through the sites and documents you have provided with relish. > Some of them like the access2science.com URL I never knew of before so > hopefully they'll provide other good sources of materials. They may > even be a good repository of whatever systems we finally come up with, > if any. > > I have had a bit of interest from the community and am a tad surprised > there doesn't appear to be more information already available. Maybe > I just haven't found it yet. > > > > On Mon, 7 May 2012, Michael Whapples wrote: > >> Hello Kirk and others who are interested, >> There are some who highly promote LaTeX for writing and reading >> technical documents. I certainly say for those serious on using >> technical notation and will make plenty of use then learning LaTeX >> can be a good investment, however I would never promote it for >> reading (it really is a document preparation tool) and also for many >> who may only encounter technical notation from time to time it really >> isn't worth the investment (if learning it for the technical notation >> is the only reason, I know some like using it for about everything in >> which case you will be making great use of it). >> >> Another mark up system, I think meant to be easier to learn but I am >> unsure whether so powerful is the asciimath notation (sorry I don't >> have a link to hand but I am sure a quick search will find relevant >> stuff). Asciimath is mainly used on the web but is therefore suitable >> for all platforms. >> >> Other more specialised systems exist like triangle and lambda, but I >> think these may be a bit limited and the editors which were designed >> for them were only developed for windows (not good for people here as >> its a linux list). >> >> A new system which John Gardner of ViewPlus is creating, and which I >> have been involved with when he was thinking of it is called Linear >> Editing and Authoring Notation (LEAN). A preprint of a paper by John >> Gardner on the LEAN system can be found at >> http://www.access2science.com/jagqn/More%20Accessible%20Math%20preprint.htm >> and I personally feel the system is a good way forward. LEAN is >> unicode based so should be simple enough for applications to work >> with. While at the moment work has mainly been focussed on Windows >> screen readers, I could imagine it working fine with others like Orca >> if someone made a suitable symbol dictionary. I have been working on >> a greasemonkey userscript so that one could read MathML equations in >> firefox using the LEAN system, that userscript can be found at >> http://bitbucket.org/mwhapples/mathmlreader but I must worn people >> its still work in progress. >> >> Finally there are other useful documents on the access2science.com >> website. >> >> Hope some of this has been useful. >> >> Michael Whapples >> On 04/05/2012 14:20, Kirk Reiser wrote: >>> Hello everybody: I am slowly over time posting this request to all the >>> mailing lists I know and think might be related to the topic. I am >>> hoping to gather enough interest that we can develop standardize >>> systems and get some implementation. >>> >>> >>> One of the irritations I have whenever I'm reading something technical >>> in text is the lack of useful representation of scientific or >>> technical notation. It happens in every book and document in every >>> format from ASCII text to HTML and even in documents such as MS Word. >>> To a small extent we have some rough accessibility with basic >>> mathematical texts because most character sets offer some amount of >>> arithmetic related symbols and they are often necessary for >>> programming and/or scientific calculations. Even then representing >>> calculus or other higher mathematical concepts are not well worked out >>> and certainly not standardized in any way. What there is currently is >>> a mixed bag of .tex mark-up or text representation of Nemith code >>> symbols. >>> >>> I would like to attempt to find standardized or common textual systems >>> and pull them together in one place as a resource for other people >>> writing new materials or editing previously available documents to >>> easily use. if there are no predefined systems, I would like to try >>> to build systems for each of the technical and scientific disciplines >>> for future writers and editors to use. I would also like to put >>> together a group of volunteers to edit at least one text in each >>> discipline so visually impaired students and readers can get past this >>> frustrating situation. We would make the books and papers available >>> through the bookserve project or other facilities if any are >>> interested in participating. >>> >>> Some of the disciplines which I believe need systems found or >>> developed include: physics, chemistry, electronics, mathematics and >>> any others people feel should be considered. >>> >>> If any of you know of any representational systems for any technical >>> or scientific disciplines please write or contact me in someway to let >>> me know about them. >>> >>> If anyone is interested in being involved in gathering and developing >>> symbolic systems or discussing them also please contact me. >>> >>> If you or someone you know might be interested in helping edit books >>> and papers using these symbolic systems, once again please contact me. >>> >>> Depending on how much response I receive will determine what type of >>> on going communication I put together. If you have suggestions for >>> that I'd like to hear them as well. >>> >>> I can be contacted at kirk at reisers.ca or on the #speakup channel on >>> freenode.net. >>> >>> Kirk Reiser >>> >>> -- >>> Kirk Reiser The Computer Braille Facility >>> e-mail: kirk at braille.uwo.ca University of Western Ontario >>> phone: (519) 661-3061 >>> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Speakup mailing list >> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca >> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup >> > > -- > Kirk Reiser The Computer Braille Facility > e-mail: kirk at braille.uwo.ca University of Western Ontario > phone: (519) 661-3061 >
