Reprinted from the Educom Reviewex p this article by Richard Jones points out that recent court decisions make colleges responsible for providing materials to students in a usable format and in a timely manner. Timely seems to mean at the same time as other students receive class materials. For math and science, the courts determined that audio tapes are not adequate. Providing Braille output of math and science symbols is not as easy as one might hope. Math uses a specialized Braille code. Transcribing such materials can require a person to know math, normal or literary Braille and the Nemeth code. Jones has developed a partially automated system which combines scanning math text into a computer. The math symbols get lost as ASCII code does not include them. A proofreader reads the electronic text in a word processor and inputs special macros where the symbols should be. When this text is run through a Braille printing program, it substitutes the correct Nemeth code for the macro in the text.
by Richard Jones
Reprinted from Educom Review, Vol. 27, No. 4 1992.
Providing learning materials for visually impaired post-secondary students in math and sciences has been a difficult challenge for universities. Audio tape has traditionally been used to accommodate the visually impaired. Since audio tapes cannot provide the conceptual framework needed to solve mathematical and scientific problems, visually impaired students have often been excused from taking courses that require manipulation of graphic or symbolic information. Recent legislation has compounded the challenge by mandating more extensive accommodations for disabled post-secondary students. The Americans with Disabilities Act and new interpretations of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 504, will require post-secondary institutions to provide more adequate learning materials for disabled students. The civil rights decision states that "solely providing audiocassette recording of lectures will not meet (university) responsibilities under section 504," and "(the university) is required to provide, on a timely basis, a system of obtaining translations of written materials that the visually impaired student is required to read for her courses." Currently, there are no post-secondary institutions that can meet these obligations for visually impaired students. And like many universities, at Arizona State University, we have increased our core math requirement for all undergraduates and are now facing the problems posed by the new legislation as well as changes in our own curriculum. One solution to the problem is Braille. However, while Braille may be mandated by legislation, there are inherent difficulties in using the system as a publishing standard. The major difficulty lies in the production of mathematical and scientific notations.
The reader of Braille has many of the advantages of visual access, but Braille does have limitations. It was originally developed so that blind people could read the Bible. Obviously, therefore, mathematical and scientific notations were not included in the Braille code. In addition, translation from flat print requires considerable effort, and mastering Braille is very difficult for readers. In 1965, Abraham Nemeth, a professor of mathematics at the University of Detroit, published a method of writing mathematical equations in Braille. The Nemeth Code provides a conceptual framework for the blind to use in solving higher mathematical equations. But to translate mathematics into Nemeth Code requires knowledge of mathematics as well as Braille, and few transcribers understand higher mathematics. At ASU, we've sent texts to be translated into Nemeth Code that were often returned incomplete or even incorrect. The solution would be to use computers to transcribe computer text into Braille, but microcomputers use ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) as their character set, and the ASCII character set does not contain characters for higher mathematics and scientific notation. So while transcribing standard text into Braille became a reality on the computer with products such as Duxbury and Hot Dots, translating math and scientific notation into Nemeth Code is not so simple. However, ASU's Disabled Student Resources (DSR) Department has found two methods to solve this problem.
The first solution does not require the translator to know Braille. At ASU, we use a scanner to enter documents into a microcomputer. Documents are then edited for scanning errors using a set of WordPerfect macros to input equations into the text document. Next, we enter a series of macros that follow from an examination of the equation. These macros automatically input a Nemeth-Code-based command into the Braille printer, thus adding additional information into the document before it is converted to Braille and printed. The use of scanners, optical character recognition software, and macros speeds up the production of Braille. The procedure does require review, and at DSR we are fortunate to have David Bowman, a coordinator for blind and visually impaired students, who has the rare combination of mathematical and Braille skills. David reviews equations to verify that they have been done properly. The second solution is experimental and follows logically from the first. We wrote a C program to intercept a print utility called TEX. The print utility controls the printer through a series of control codes, which tell the printer what characters to print. ASU's C program intercepts those commands, selects commands related to mathematical notation, and converts them into Nemeth Code. The file is then run through Duxbury (a Braille translation program) to convert the text into Braille. The document is then sent to a Braille embosser. It is clear that a standard print utility for text production is needed. ASU's mathematical and scientific notation program works with any TEX-based program, and, although many print utility programs do exist, this experimental program easily uses another portion of the document path to produce Braille.
Another approach was discussed at a recent California State University, Northridge, Conference on Technology and Disabilities. Several countries in Europe are experimenting with another component in the document path. The suggestion is that a markup language be used as the basis for accommodation. A mark-up language is used to label and describe the document in detail so that a printer can use any product to print the text. Under this proposal, a set of "tags" would be developed to describe text and symbols used in the document. Then any country or software company could develop software to decode the tags and produce speech, large print, Braille, or any other medium from the same document. There are several competing mark-up languages capable of supporting such tags. Any language can be used; however, the entire content of the document must be translated so that the needs of all readers are met. One mark-up language often mentioned is the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), which is capable of supporting tags that would be interpreted by any disability device as a set of commands for conversion. SGML is currently used in some form in most countries and in various departments of the federal government. The impetus to solve this problem comes from foreign competition as well as current laws and new interpretations of existing laws that are imposing legal demands on schools and publishers. I surveyed 186 major publishers used by Arizona State University; 16 said that they had used ASCII for some of their publications, including one major publisher who said it cost $15,800 for an ASCII copy. The reason for this figure is that the compositor for the series is in the Orient. I should note that I discovered that many publishers currently use foreign compositors to print their books. Many of those compositors don't use computers because it is cheaper to input the entire document when updates are needed than it is to invest in a computer system. Yet while the impetus to solve this problem is tangible, there is noguarantee that the solution finally adopted will be useful for post-secondary math and scientific notation in Braille. Europe may create its own standard, which may not address the needs of post-secondary education in the United States. And each publisher in this country may create its own competing standard in order to comply with legislation. Any number of major interests are poised to "solve" this problem. The task of EASI (Equal Access to Software and Information), along with EDUCOM and the EUIT (Educational Uses of Information Technology), is to develop a position on this important issue that fully addresses the requirements of post-secondary school educators.
Author: Richard Jones (5-1234), Arizona State University, Disabled Student Resources. E-mail: ICRRJ@ASUVM.INRE.ASU.EDU
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