Tex code in TUG page

[Reinhard Kotucha]

On 2022-07-22 at 18:45:05 +0100, Jonathan Fine wrote:

 > Just to let you know that I intend to use this thread as a
 > one-slide case study for my talk Access and Accessibility at the
 > TUG Conference. This talk will be at 16:45 pm UK time on Sunday. I
 > won't mention names, but I might mention roles.

Hi Jonathan,
like Kaveh I have no problem if my name is mentioned.

Maybe I should provide some background information regarding my
statement.

About 20 years ago a teacher and a blind schoolboy attended our local
monthly TeX meeting at the university.  The teacher was employed by
"Landesbildungszentrum für Blinde Niedersachsen (LBZB)", an
organization which supports blind people's education in Lower Saxony.

In the past blind pupils attended special schools.  The LBZB launched
a pilot project where blind pupils attend regular schools, supported
by a teacher of the LBZB.

Blind pupils usually used Microsoft Word if only text is involved.
For mathematics the situation is more difficult because formulas are
two-dimensional and couldn't be displayed on a Braille line.  The
solution was that the blind typed math formulas in LaTeX syntax.
Since LaTeX (source code) formulas are one-dimesional they could
easily be read on a Braille display.

The LBZB-teacher helped whenever problems occurred with the
translation from LaTeX to PDF.  Class exams were judged by the
teachers of the regular schools, who had no idea about LaTeX at this
time.

Nowadays I assume that more teachers are familiar with LaTeX because
they used it already during their own education.

I must admit that I don't know very much about the requirements of
visually impaired people and the tools that are available now.  I've
heard about Nemeth but I actually don't know anything about it.  

After all, I've been told recently that the blind schoolboy I met
about 20 years ago now has a doctoral degree in economics.

Regards,
  Reinhard

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Reinhard Kotucha                            Phone: +49-511-3373112
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