Teaching LaTeX to visually disabled

Asked Mar 06 '12 at 22:23

Active Feb 16 '15 at 22:26

Viewed 1,505 times

I will teach a blind person how to use LaTeX this week. Has anyone any hints for me or package recommendations?

edited Feb 16 '15 at 22:26

doncherry

asked Mar 06 '12 at 22:23

Uwe Ziegenhagen

1

Not sure whether this includes output considerations. If so, see LaTeX to Braille. – Werner Mar 07 '12 at 05:32
Here some comments on the course. There were three students, two of them seeing. The blind student used a netbook with a Braille display and audio output attached. As editor he used TeXniccenter and got along quite well with it. – Uwe Ziegenhagen Mar 11 '12 at 07:12

2 Answers2

(Disclaimer: I am not visually impaired, nor have I ever taught someone who is to use LaTeX.)

Here are the things that I would do:

Get on the blindmath mailing list. There are a lot of very knowledgeable and (importantly!) very helpful people there, both visually impaired and sighted, and some have been in the situation you're in. Whilst the focus is more on teaching the mathematics, LaTeX is a common topic and a common choice of medium. I believe that there is quite some discussion on editors and screen readers and how they react to LaTeX - start by searching the archives, but also don't hesitate to ask questions.
Take a look at Access 2 Science. Some of the people behind that (maybe all) are on the Blindmath mailing list, and are involved in accessible technology.
Keep notes and answer your own question so that others who are in a similar situation later can benefit from finding the information here.

answered Mar 07 '12 at 11:08

Andrew Stacey

Trying with a voice synthesizer could help, I think.

edited Feb 10 '15 at 20:14

Uwe Ziegenhagen

answered Feb 10 '15 at 19:21

Roman

1

Welcome to TeX.SX! You can have a look at our starter guide to familiarize yourself further with our format. – Paul Gessler Feb 10 '15 at 19:40
1

I don't understand how this would help. Like text-to-voice, would you translate/synthesize code? Or would you synthesize regular notes on LaTeX? – Werner Feb 10 '15 at 19:44
Actually the student was using a synthesizer, at three times the standard speed. I didn't understand a single word... – Uwe Ziegenhagen Feb 10 '15 at 20:16