النتائج (
العربية) 2:
[نسخ]نسخ!
The first of these laws, called The Act to Promote the Education of the Blind, got enacted in 1879 [2]. That landmark law identifies the central role of access to information for fulfilling the above right, and the special barriers standing before blind people to reach such an access.
Recent advances in computerized technologies made information considerably more accessible to the general sighted and blind population. However, for mathematicians, scientists, and engineers, the case is different. The sighted ones enjoy a readily available online access to a rapidly expanding electronic database of knowledge, while the blind ones to a large degree are left behind without suitable tools to review the available resources.
For most blind professionals in science, mathematics, and engineering, braille is the medium of choice. For blind people with hearing problems, braille is generally the only option. To quote Curtis Chong [3], the Director of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) Technology Department:
Although today I make full use of computers with speech output, I find that there is no substitute for being able to put my hands on a complicated piece of code or a document whose language requires careful crafting. Proficiency in literary Braille, the Nemeth Code, and the Computer Braille Code allows me the freedom to proofread, in extreme detail, the most complicated material. . . Among blind Americans of working age (18-55), there is a staggering 70 percent unemployment rate. Of the remaining 30 percent who are employed, 80 percent or more use Braille. I submit that this is no accident. There is a direct correlation between success in employment and proficiency in Braille.
From an economic perspective, it should be also noted that a jobless blind person costs the nation $916,000 in life time support and unpaid taxes [4].
Unfortunately, as the MacArthur award winner blind professor Geerat Vermeij noticed “When you go into science, there’s essentially nothing in Braille” [5]. It doesn’t take much to verify this observation. For instance, a search of the library of Congress catalog for publications in 23 categories of mathematics, sciences, and engineering, provided more than 160,000 articles, but with only 55 of them available in braille [6].
No solution to the problem is currently available even for more basic content. The American Printing House for the Blind estimated that, due to a severe shortage of transcribers, only 78 out of the 3000 general textbook published in 1999 were available in braille in January 2000 [7]. The Texas Education Agency estimated that it would take all the available math transcribers in the nation (150-200 [8]) to braille just the new math adoptions in Texas. Transcribing a single textbook can take more than six months [9], and may cost up to $9,500 [10]. Such costs place a heavy burden on institutions and, in most cases, individuals who need material cannot afford the long waits.
When it comes to mathematical content, LATEX [11] is generally agreed to be by far the best authoring language. It is the authoring language recommended by the American Mathematical Society, and it is widely in use. For instance, the arXiv archive holds over 218,000 reports on Physics, Mathematics, and Computer Science, the majority of which are provided with LATEX sources [12]. On the other hand, scientific word processors export documents also in LATEX format. LyX [13], MathType [14], Publicon [15], and Scientific Notebook [16] are such examples.
This proposal asks support for the development of a system for translating general LATEX sources into formatted Nemeth braille, and for making the system easily configurable for other braille codes as the need arises. Nemeth braille [17] is the standard used in North America, and is the one endorsed by the National Federation of the Blind [18]. The work will investigate different designs and algorithms for the implementation, and will consider extensions of braille code which can facilitate proofreading [19].
The system will allow blind scientists, mathematicians, and engineers to tap into the vast and ever growing amount of documentation available in LATEX to sighted colleagues in their fields. In addition, it will offer to people who are not familiar with Nemeth braille the option of authoring content in this format indirectly through LATEX.
The system could also become a useful tool for preparing math-based educational material for students at all levels of schooling. Considering the current hardship that blind people encounter in accessing mathematical-based content, it is likely that many who would otherwise choose to practice professions requiring a mathematical background currently do not enter such professions. The proposed development thus has the potential to increase the number of braille readers who would choose to pursue such careers.
It is expected that approaches and code developed for the current project will be incorporated also into the gnome braille translator [20], and will answer the call of the National Federation of the Blind to “developers of Braille translation software to develop software that provides Braille translation of MathML documents into
يجري ترجمتها، يرجى الانتظار ..
