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We argue that the problem of accessibility can be viewed purely as the problem of notation translation: visually impaired individuals differ from sighted
individuals in that the two use different notations for reading and writing. The notations used by the two groups differ only in syntax, they represent
the same semantics. We therefore argue that the solution to the accessibility problem lies in building powerful semantics-preserving translators that can

In order for a technological aid to be efficient and efficacious in the educational sphere, it must increase the chances and capabilities of the pupil with
a disability, and respect the user’s requirements and characteristics while avoiding forcing. Therefore it should be easy for teachers to understand and
use. This is the result our research group has reached upon concluding a period of experimentation of software developed by us called BlindMath.

Dr. Neil Soiffer illustrates the new features available in Design Science MathPlayer. Especially, speech localization for Italian and German language have been recently developed together with @Science network members. These features are discussed in details, the localization process is illustrated and future development activities are sketched.

Arthur Karshmer (University of San Francisco) illustrates his project.

The AutOMathic Blocks system has been designed to teach arithmetic and beginning algebra to young blind students using Braille labeled manipulative blocks. The system allows the learner to build, manipulate and solve problems using blocks which contain simple Braille code. This allows the learner to read their math problems with their finger and to understand the two-dimensional mature of math.

These are the slides and audio from the talk of Neil Soiffer at the @Science conference "Making Science Accessible: emerging opportunities for blind and partially sighted".

Neil Soiffer's talk shows how Design Science Inc. Technologies can help visually impaired students to exploit mathematical formulae.
He also speaks about the integration of mathematics into the PDF format.

The advent of mark-up languages has helped to distinguish also in the world of mathematics content from presentation. This talk gives a personal overview
on some of the developments that have first lead to the invention of new mathematical notations such as Stuttgart Maths Notation and ASCII Maths Notation.
The multiplicity of such writing systems has manifested the need for a lingua franca and led to the SGML-based MATHS project which demonstrated multimodal
access using speech, nonverbal audio, and dynamic Braille.

The LAMBDA system aims at facilitating blind students to write, read and process text and mathematical expressions in an educational context.
Mathematical expressions and text are presented to the user in a linear formon the braille display and through speech output. Visual rendering in a linear
form enables the sighted reader to understand what the blind user is writing.
Asynchronous two-dimensional visual rendering of mathematical notation is available. Many editing and exploration operations are available. The LAMBDA

This talk introduces challenges and achievements in localizing scientific software for blind users for Slovak language. Especially, attention is drawn on the LAMBDA system.

Olga Caprotti, the manager of our fellow thematic network, JEM, describes the way in which it can help in the efforts of educating about accessibility of science, and of mathematics in particular.

UMCL is a programming library encapsulating various converters for different Braille codes and which enables developers of applications designed for visually
impaired people to easily support multiple Braille Mathematical notations. To make this possible without increasing the complexity an architecture based
on a MathML (Presentation MathML) as the central representation of the formula was developed. This architecture is quite simple. It includes a main module