Abstract

SZESZ JUNIOR, Albino; MENDES, Lucas Ribeiro  and  SILVA, Sani de Carvalho Rutz da. Math2Text: Software for generating and converting mathematical equations to text - limitations and inclusion possibilities. RISTI [online]. 2020, n.37, pp.99-115. ISSN 1646-9895.  https://doi.org/10.17013/risti.37.99-115.

In the field of inclusion, specifically when it comes to vision difficulties, there are gaps for understanding and interpreting mathematical equations presented on different media. Thus, the objective of this work is to present Math2Text, a product that converts equations produced in a graphical platform to accessible textual equations, through the format of “read text”, i.e., a string of unambiguous text written in a natural language (e.g., Portuguese), with the goal of enabling visually impaired students to understand and interpret equations so they can be solved properly. For this purpose, the UCD (User-centered design) methodology was used, with the following steps: research, design, prototyping and testing. In the research phase, similar studies were analyzed, and different software were compared. In the design stage, the tools and strategy used in the development are presented. In prototyping, the tool and its interfaces are presented, then in the test stage, the test performed with a teacher and a group of visually impaired students is demonstrated. It is concluded that the system proved to be quite efficient and, as future work, it is intended to automate the whole process.

Keywords : Conversion of equations to text; Accessibility; Inclusion; Visual impairment; Software.

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