MathPlayer: Web-Based Math Accessibility
Neil Soiffer · 2005 · Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05) · doi:10.1145/1090785.1090831
Summary
This poster paper presents MathPlayer, a free plug-in for Microsoft Internet Explorer developed by Design Science Inc. that renders MathML (Mathematical Markup Language) visually in web pages and makes mathematical expressions accessible to people with print-related disabilities including blindness, low vision, and learning disabilities such as dyslexia. Unlike image-based math rendering, MathPlayer dynamically displays expressions matching the document's font properties — size, colour scheme, and style — so that when users enlarge text or change colour settings, mathematical content scales and adapts accordingly. Users can also click on individual expressions to obtain a magnified view without enlarging the entire page. MathPlayer integrates with popular screen readers including JAWS and Window-Eyes through speech APIs (SAPI 4.0 and 5.1), using built-in speech rules to verbalise mathematical expressions with appropriate prosodic pauses achieved through judicious use of commas and periods. It also works with TextHELP!'s BrowseAloud and learning disability products to provide synchronized highlighting of math expressions as they are spoken.
Key findings
MathPlayer 2.0 (released spring 2004) achieved mainstream integration of math accessibility by working within the tools users already know — Internet Explorer, JAWS, Window-Eyes — rather than requiring specialised software. The synchronized highlighting feature, where mathematical subexpressions are visually highlighted in sync with spoken output, was particularly valuable for users with learning disabilities and was incorporated from TextHELP!'s approach. MathPlayer's visual highlighting was flexible, allowing customisation of foreground and background colours as well as the granularity of highlighting. At the time of writing, navigation was limited to verbal description via screen readers' off-screen model, with no structural navigation of math expressions possible. The paper identifies several areas for future development: customisable speech rules for alternate languages, Braille translation via an API to call third-party translators and embossers, expansion beyond Internet Explorer to support Microsoft Word and PDF formats (leveraging MathType's ability to translate expressions into MathML), and the development of a Universal Access PDF format (PDF/UA) that would embed MathML for accessible rendering.
Relevance
MathPlayer was a pioneering effort to make mathematical content on the web accessible at a time when most math was rendered as inaccessible images. The challenges it addressed — bridging the gap between visual mathematical notation and non-visual access, integrating with existing assistive technology rather than requiring new tools, and supporting multiple disability types (vision, learning) through a single system — remain central to math accessibility today. The project's trajectory anticipated several developments that have since materialised: MathML is now natively supported in most browsers, PDF/UA has become an ISO standard, and ARIA and MathML together provide structural navigation of expressions. For practitioners working on STEM accessibility, MathPlayer's design philosophy — make math accessible within the user's existing workflow and tools — remains the right approach, even as the specific technologies have evolved.
Tags: mathematical accessibility · MathML · screen readers · print disability · learning disabilities · braille · STEM accessibility · web accessibility
Standards referenced: MathML · SAPI · SSML