MathML to ASCII-Braille and hierarchical tree converter

Abstract

Mathematics is a complex study subject for most people. People with disabilities, specifically those who are blind, face additional challenges: lack of study material and difficulty to access digital math notation. Significant efforts have been made in order to improve the quality of access to materials; however a complete solution has not been provided; in addition to this, most software applications support European and North American mathematical Braille codes, but very few of them cater for Spaniard and Latin American users with blindness. The present paper describes a prototype that converts equations in MathML into two alternative formats for representing them: an ASCII-Braille file ready for embossing, and a navigable tree structure conveying the hierarchy of equations that can be read with a screen-reader. The prototype uses the Unified Mathematical Code. The current version of the prototype presented here is functional and can be used for producing material for people with blindness; however, it still requires testing with final users. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.