MathInBraille
19.12.2014 | | Vienna/Linz | Austria
Network themes: Secondary Education, Transit to other levels of education from secondary education, New technologies
Sun, 01/01/2012 - Mon, 31/12/2012
MathInBraille
Hilfsgemeinschaft der Blinden und Sehschwachen Österreichs
Summary
The project provides a free web based service where electronic documents with mathematical and scientific content can be converted into accessible Braille. The main target group of the project are students, teachers and all blind and partially sighted people who deal with non-fiction and/or scientific literature.
Link of the project and organization:
http://www.mathinbraille.at
http://www.hilfsgemeinschaft.at
http://www.integriert-studieren.jku.at/
Project object:
The objective of the project MathInBraille is to reduce the digital divide through the development of a free web based service that makes it possible to convert electronic documents with mathematical content to readable Braille and speech formats.
Methodology
To offer an webbased open source platform for conversion from 2D Format of formulas to linear form of braille according to the valid standards, with a free choice of input.
Input and output and the website itself are accessible according to the standards of W3C/WAI - WCAG 2.0
Target
The target group of the project consists not only of students but also of all those other blind and visually impaired persons engaged privately or professionally in scientific literature.
Good practice innovations
The Braille math code used in Austria is an adaptation of Human Readable TeX (HRT) - an unpublished code developed at the “Institut Integriert Studieren” in Linz. The code is currently being redefined and improved in a subtask of the 'Accessible Schoolbook' project (PSB Web).
The Austrian Math Code actually is not a Braille code like for example Nemeth Code (INBCM Web). The attempt to use the traditional math Braille codes in the integrated education failed. The basic cause for it was the totally unreadable appearance of these codes on the display and the unavailability of a software solution which would offer two parallel formula renderings: a visual and a Braille one. The code implemented in this project is a textual, ASCII code that offers a certain resemblance to the regular visual math rendering.
The project further developed the open source software "Universal Maths Conversion Library" (UMCL) and created a web based user interface where different document types can be converted by the user into accessible formats. The use of the web service is free of charge and without any restriction.
The web portal "MathInBraille" is made available under an Austrian domain www.mathinbraille.at. Users have the opportunity to load files with mathematical contents (Latex or MathML format) on the server and get a file format readable for blind and visually impaired persons in return. The output type (Braille codes) can be selected through an HTML form. The site complies AA (double A) accessibility standards according to WCAG 2.0 (http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/).
The web service will not store the users personal data.
Good practice achievements
Project documents:
Available on the Website itself - http://www.mathinbraille.at
Websites (all in German)
http://www.wienerzeitung.at/themen_channel/wz_digital/digital_news/43020...
http://wien.orf.at/news/stories/2518302/
http://twitter.com/#!/mathinbraille
http://www.gleichgestellt.at/index.php?id=65&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=6966
http://derstandard.at/1326503597622/Online-Tool-Software-macht-mathemati...
http://www.behindertenarbeit.at/bha/archives/11669
http://www.bizeps.or.at/news.php?nr=12979
http://www.studium.uni-freiburg.de/service_und_beratungsstellen/studiere...
http://studentpoint.univie.ac.at/zum-studium/barrierefrei-studieren/behi...
http://www.nachrichten.at/ratgeber/digital/art122,805072
http://www.zeroproject.org
………
Also listed in many newspapers here in Austria.
Project partners and other stakeholders
University of Linz, Institut Integriert Studieren -http://www.integriert-studieren.jku.at/
Austrian Association supporting the Blind and Visually Impaired - http://www.hilfsgemeinschaft.at
NetIdee - http://www.netidee.at
Good practice testimonial
Blind students at the University in Linz are using the service
Evaluation
Within the Framework of an application with NetIdee - http://www.netidee.at - they supported the project developement with fundings. Reports are availaible.
The project was presented at the ZeroProject Conference 2014 in Vienna as a good practice example.
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