Non-sequential mathematical notations in the LAMBDA system

Abstract

Blind people are used to read mathematical notations through sequential representations (e.g. most Braille codes represent fractions, superscripts and underscripts in a sequential pattern). In mathematics, many notations cannot be represented through a sequential pattern without a loss of suggestivity and expressiveness (e.g. matrices, polynomial division, long division, automata, etc.). This paper introduces a multimodal interaction paradigm which aims to enable blind people to explore and edit mathematical notations which cannot be represented through a sequential pattern. So far, this interaction paradigm has been implemented in the LAMBDA system. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.