Making STEM Docs Accessible

InftyReader, ChattyInfty, and
InftyEditor
by:
Steve Jacobs, President
InftyReader Group, Inc.
http://inftyreader.org
Last Updated on: June 12, 2017
Copyright 2008-2017 by InftyReader Group, Inc. All rights reserved. 1

Credits and Thanks
This presentation is an adaptation of:
“Technology to make Scientific Documents Accessible”
Created by:
Masakazu Suzuki, Professor emeritus (Kyushu
University) and Katsuhito Yamaguchi (Nihon
University)…
…who are the pioneers and team leads of the
developers of InftyReader, ChattyInfty, and InftyEditor!
THANK YOU!

What are STEM Documents?
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math
(STEM) documents may include any/all of the
following:
• Text
• Math/chemical formulas
• Tables
• Diagrams
• Flow charts
• Figures and graphs

Challenges
Some people believe:
• Providing students with print disabilities
access to math content is too difficult and
time-consuming;
• Most students with print disabilities find
math too complex; and,
• Because of these reasons, making math
content accessible is not worth the time and
effort.
4Copyright 2008-2017 by InftyReader Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Challenge: Math Images
Images (GIF, JPEG, etc.) of mathematical equations
appearing on web pages, eBooks and PDF documents:
• Are not accessible by students using AT;
• Do not provide for alternative output modalities,
such as Braille or synthetic speech;
• Cannot be altered, easily, to accommodate the
learning needs of students with low vision (color
and contrast changes); and,
• Require authors to redraw images when even small
changes are made.

Challenges: Alt-Text Tags
• Are limited to a narrative description of math equations;
• Must be hand-coded by someone who fully understands the
context of the expression;
• Do not provide ways to intelligently navigate though math
equations in order to understand them;
• Do not eliminate the previously mentioned issues like
support for Braille math output;
• Must contain unambiguously, consistent, descriptions of the
math.; and,
• Only provide a limited form of accessibility, and only for the
simplest equations.

Example: Alt-Text
“StartFraction StartRoot 2 x plus 3 EndRoot Over
x minus 4 EndFraction”

Rendering Math Equations into Audio
• DAISY and EPUB3 Digital Talking Books (DTBs)
deliver human recorded/synthetic speech-
based renderings of math equations.
• DTBs can be rendered, automatically, from
MathML and LaTeX.
DAISY 3, 2005 release:
http://www.daisy.org/z3986/2005/Z3986-2005.html
New EPUB3 specification:
http://www.idpf.org/epub/a11y/

The Solution
Using MathML/LaTeX to render math
content enables students with print
disabilities to easily access that content
using assistive technology (AT).

What is InftyReader?
InftyReader is an Optical Character Recognition
(OCR) application that automatically recognizes
and converts image-based STEM content into
LaTeX, MathML, and Word XML.

Example: Image

Example: MathML
<math
xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML'><mfr
ac><mrow><msqrt><mn>2</mn><mi>x</mi><mo>+</
mo><mn>3</mn></msqrt></mrow><mrow><mi>x</m
i><mo>-</mo><mn>4</mn></mrow></mfrac></math>
More about MathML from the W3C:
https://www.w3.org/Math/
Experiment with MathML:
https://goo.gl/7PB948

Example: LaTeX
dfrac {sqrt {2x+3}}{x-4}
Experiment with LaTeX:
https://goo.gl/7PB948
More about LaTeX from the LaTeX Project
https://www.latex-project.org/about/

Example: Paste MathML into Word
More about Word XML from Microsoft:
https://goo.gl/FTyXvp

What is ChattyInfty 3?
• ChattyInfty 3 is a talking math editor. It can
be used to edit the files processed (OCR’d) by
InftyReader.
• Once editing is complete, ChattyInfty 3 can
export files into a wide range of accessible
formats.

ChattyInfty 3 Reading Verbosities
Detailed: Summation, sumunder n, isequalto, 1, endofunder, over 4, endofover, f,
leftroundparenthesis, n, rightroundparenthesis, isequalto, f, leftroundparenthesis,
1, rightroundparenthesis, plus, f, leftroundparenthesis, 2, rightroundparenthesis,
plus, f, leftroundparenthesis, 3, rightroundparenthesis, plus, f,
leftroundparenthesis, 4, rightroundparenthesis.
Plain: Summation, sumunder, n, equals, 1, endofunder, over 4, endofover, f,
leftparen, n, rightparen, equals, f, leftparen, 1, rightparen, plus, f, leftparen, 2,
rightparen, plus, f, leftparen, 3, rightparen, plus, f, leftparen, 4, rightparen.
Smooth: Summation, from n equals 1 to 4 of f, leftparen, n, rightparen, equals, f,
leftparen 1 rightparen, plus, f, leftparen 2 rightparen, plus, f, leftparen 3
rightparen, plus, f, leftparen 4 rightparen.

ChattyInfty 3: File Export Formats (1 of 2)
• LaTeX
• HTML
• MathML
• Microsoft Word XML
• Spoken Text

ChattyInfty 3: File Export Formats (2 of 2)
• DAISY 2.02 multimedia
• DAISY 2.02 audio
• DAISY 3 multimedia
• DAISY 3 text (with audio for math)
• DAISY 3 text-only
• EPUB3 media overlays
• EPUB3 no audio
• EPUB3 iBooks media overlays

InftyReader: Target Documents
• Printed books
• Images of equations
• PDF files that include image-based math
expressions (not text-based expressions).

Example: Text-Based Math Expression
If you can select individual symbols with your
mouse, you are looking at a text-based math
expression.

Text-Based Math Expression
Extracted, text-based, math expressions are
useless and meaningless when it comes to
making math content accessible. Here’s what a
text extraction of the math expression on the
previous slide looks like:
Y0 (t) = nX-1 j=1 Xj (y(t))dyj dt (t)

Example: Image-Based Math Expression
If you cannot select individual symbols with
your mouse, you are looking at an image-
based math expression.

Example: Simple Layout Document
Automatic conversion of simple layout
documents is easy with InftyReader. For
example:

Example: Complex Layout Document.
Automatic conversion of complex layout
documents is not easy and normally requires a
combination of automatic and manual actions.
For example:

Example: Complex Layout Document
Automatic conversion of complex layout
documents is not easy and normally requires a
combination of automatic and manual actions.
For example:

InftyReader:
Minimum Requirements

No Pixelation, 600DPI, B&W (Binary) Only

Examples of Images That do not Meet
InftyReader’s Minimum Requirements

Pixelated, Grayscale Characters

Background Colors

Pixelated and/or Grayscale Characters

Dirty Background or Off-Horizontal

Characters Running Together

Broken Characters

Background Patterns

Pixelation and Scanning Books

Screenshots of an automatically-generated
InftyReader IML file opened in ChattyInfty 3

Screenshot of an Automatically-Generated
InftyReader MathML file opened in a
browser window

InftyReader LaTeX file opened in Notepad

InftyReader Microsoft Word XML file
opened in Microsoft Word

Screenshots: Using InftyReader to Copy a
Math Image from a PDF File and Paste it
in to Microsoft Word as LaTeX!

What is InftyEditor?
• InftyEditor is an authoring tool for mathematical
documents using LaTeX.
• Users can input any math expression quickly and
easily using keyboard shortcuts.
• Input math expressions are displayed,
immediately (after input), in print style just like
you'd see in a printed document.
• InftyEditor can save files in the following
formats: LaTeX, MathML, PDF, Microsoft Word
2007 and Human Readable TeX

InftyReader One-Year Version
Includes a license to install and use InftyReader
on one (1) PC for the period of one year or
10,000 processed pages, whichever comes first.
At that time the application will stop functioning
and another license will need to be purchased.
All the functions of the one year version of
InftyReader are the same as the Standard
Version.

InftyReader Standard Version
on one (1) PC for an unlimited amount of time
and includes processing up to 10,000 pages per
month.

InftyReader Enterprise Version
on an unlimited number of PCs within the
licensed Domain only. There is no monthly page
number limit.

Pricing
• InftyReader One-Year Version: $90
• InftyReader Standard Version: $400
• ChattyInfty One-Year Version: $40
• ChattyInfty Standard Version: $200
• InftyReader/ChattyInfty Standard Version
Bundle: $500
• InftyReader Enterprise Version: $5,000
Additional pricing information:
http://inftyreader.org/buy/

Contact Information
Steve Jacobs, President
InftyReader Group, Inc.,
a subsidiary of IDEAL Group, Inc.
http://inftyreader.org
steve.jacobs@ideal-group.org
Cell: (614) 777-0660
Fax: (614) 522-1031
TTY: (800) 750-0750
Skype: stevenijacobs

Additional Resources
• Readme First: InftyReader Minimum Requirements
• Download InftyReader, ChattyInfty, and InftyEditor
• InftyReader V3 Tutorials
• About ChattyInfty V3
• About InftyEditor V3
• InftyReader Articles/Research Papers
• Most-Requested InftyReader, ChattyInfty, and InftyEditor
Information
• Math Accessibility Articles
• Split PDF Files

Questions?

Thank you!!!

Making STEM Docs Accessible

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