[texhax] TeX for the blind

[William Adams]

On Dec 8, 2006, at 9:50 AM, Chris Rowley wrote:

>> This sort of thing may get better for .pdfs once the Stixfonts
>> ( http://www.stixfonts.org/ ) are available, but even then will
>> probably need improvements in screen reader support ('cause I'm not
>> convinced that they'll read out a superscripted ``2'' as  
>> ``squared'').
>>
>
> No, fonts will make no difference.
>
> Screen readers tend to do just that: they read a screen just like a
> person, making guesses about which symbol strings are words and ... .

It would make a difference is a superscript ``2'' is assigned a  
different Unicode slot so that a screen reader could be configured to  
read it as (say) ``to the power of 2''. Not sure if that's what's  
being done w/ Stix or no, but it should be.

Of course, the problem here is this sort of thing is contextual ---  
what about the instances when it means ``footnote #2''?

All of which is a good argument for a markup-rich source which can be  
readily re-purposed.

William

-- 
William Adams
senior graphic designer
Fry Communications



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