Online nemeth braille input/output using content MathML

Access to high-quality braille materials for mathematical content is one of the most challenging obstacles faced by visually-impaired students. The need for visually-impaired students to communicate their work to sighted instructors often prevents them from participating in mainstream classrooms in STEM subjects. Backward translation from Nemeth Braille to print mathematics is a difficult and time-consuming process even for teachers of the visually impaired, who may not have an extensive understanding of the mathematical concepts underlying the notation. The goal of this current work is to provide a software system that supports the automatic generation of Nemeth Braille output, and the automatic backward translation of Nemeth Braille input, in the context of a WYSIWYG equation editor designed for sighted math users. This software lets a sighted math user, who need not know Nemeth Braille, produce high-quality braille materials for math in a fraction of the time, and at a fraction of the expense, of current best practices for print-to-braille translation. It also allows a Nemeth Braille user who is unable to access the printed form of an equation to produce high-quality print mathematical formulas in a fraction of the time, and at a fraction of the expense, of current best practices for braille-to-print translation. This software supports automatic, two-way conversion from printed math notation into Nemeth Braille, including reverse translation from Nemeth Braille into printed math notation. Using this software, a sighted user can communicate mathematics online and in real-time with a visually-impaired Nemeth Braille user. This kind of instantaneous interaction has the potential to reduce, or even eliminate, many of the communication barriers that inhibit visually-impaired students from participating in mainstream math and science classrooms.