mathematical figures accessibility csun 2014

Bruno Splendiani, Mireia Ribera, Miquel CentellesAdaptabit Group – University of Barcelona

CSUN Conference 2014

IntroductionOur workMethodologyResultsProposalConclusions

2“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014

“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014 3

In Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) academic literature, mathematical formulae, diagrams and other two-dimensional structures are a critical information source.

Source: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STEM_Magnet_Academy]

4

Barriers to visually impaired students and students with learning disabilities in research literature

“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014

5

Mathematics literature include

Sources: [1- 3 ]

“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014

Solution for math notations: MATHML

6

Source: [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166218X12002363]

“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014

7

Sources: [1- 5 ]

What about graphics?

“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014

“If I can’t see the image I read its description”

8“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014

9

The image is…it shows…it represents…..???“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014

Readers Access to the content

Publishers fulfill accessibility regulations Comply with social responsibility Advantages in article retrieval

10“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014

To review publishing practices, policies and submission guidelines concerning the accessibility of visual content in a sample of ten academic journals in mathematics.

To check the application of the accessibility policy in one article from each journal.

To analyze the alternative textual means of accessing the underlying semantics of figures.

11“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014

Where are the text alternatives?

In the image’s captions. In the surrounding/adjacent text. In the mentions of the image in main

text. In the image title. In the metadata.

12“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014

ObjectivesTo foster the inclusion of

accessibility policies in the submission workflow of academic journals

To show the need for guidelines to standardize the submission of images in scientific papers.

13“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014

14

Accessibility policy?Submission policy and guidelines for visual

content?

Top ten journals in mathematics in JCR

“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014

Journal of the American Mathematical Society Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics Annals of Mathematics Acta Mathematica Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society Inventiones Mathematicae Foundations of Computational Mathematics Journal of the European Mathematical Society Publications Mathématiques de l'IHÉS Fixed Point Theory and Applications

15

One article for each journal in PDF versionAre figures “readable”?

Image formatColor contrast and coding Label font type and sizeMinimum resolution Minimum dimensions

“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014

16

What is in image-related text?

“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014

No journal had an accessibility policy statement.

Only two journals made a reference to the inclusion of descriptive captions of figures in their submission guidelines.

“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014 17

Visual elements in mathematics papers have peculiar characteristics and treatment compared to figures in  papers of other research areas, like Medicine, Biology, Computer Science. Preferential use of vector format rather than the

raster format. Usually, the figures are considered as part of the

text. Fonts preferences mismatch with accessibility

requirements. NO content semantic descriptors in XMP metadata

“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014 18

Vector images in PDF = content stream in object

19

No alternative/ functional actual text

“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014

Raster images not tagged in PDF

20

No alternative/actual text

“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014

“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014 21

Source: Bogomolov et al.

Two frequent disappointing decisions concerning the fonts in formulae:

Usually, the label font size in formulae is lower than 12 pt.

Usually, the font family in formulae is the serif one… since it is recommended by the ISO International Standard 80000-:2009.

“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014 22

NO content semantic descriptors in XMP metadata

23“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014

24“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014

Good practices documented in journal policy

Good practices applied in paper

Vector format 10 9Color alone 2 8Color Contrast 2 7Combination of colors 2 8Minimum resolution 5 0Minimum dimensions 3 0Font type sans-serif 2 0Minimum Font size 4 0Alt/actual text (PDF) 0 0Caption 5 8Mention(s) 2 7Metadata 0 2

“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014 25

Lack of consistency between image submission policies and their application

The practices do not fulfill basic recommendations on accessibility

Images lack alternative descriptionsVisual information of scientific articles is

not accessible to people with visual disabilities

26“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014

27

Promote the inclusion of alt text (and other accessibility issues) in the publishing workflowRecommendations in submission

systemAutomatic alt text checkAutomatic image check (contrast,

resolution, font size..)

“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014

Provide solutions for avoiding the loss of semantic data associated with figures during the transformation from original LaTex documents to the final publication PDF documents.

Research opportunities: About the metadata workflow. About the adaptation of Image Processing

and Interchange Standard (IPI)

“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014 28

29

Metadata management in the publishing workflow

How are metadata and image annotations created and transmitted from initial submission to article publication?

Is image metadata in mathematics publications preserved throughout its lifecycle?

“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014

30“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014

Lack of common and clearly defined guidelines addressing accessibility issues related to figures in highly cited mathematics journals.

High variability in the application of recommendations related to graphical features and textual alternatives to the figures in PDF articles.

We propose to improve image accessibility in mathematics by promoting the inclusion of alternative text in publishers guidelines and authors practices.

Questions?centelles@ub.edu

http://www.ub.edu/adaptabit/adaptabit@ub.edu

31

“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014

1. Fedor Nazarov, Dmitry Ryabogin and Artem Zvavitch , An asymmetric convex body with maximal sections of constant volume, J. Amer. Math. Soc. 27 (2014), 43-68

2. Grégory Miermont, The Brownian map is the scaling limit of uniform random plane quadrangulations, Volume 10, issue 2. June 2013

3. Mladen Bestvina , Geometric group theory and 3 manifolds hand in hand: the fulfillment of Thurston's vision, Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 51 (2014), 53-70

4. Jonathan D. Hauenstein and Charles W. Wampler, Isosingular Sets and Deflation, Foundations of Computational MathematicsThe Journal of the Society for the Foundations of Computational MathematicsVolume 13, Issue 3. June 2013

5. Piotr Mackowiak, The existence of equilibrium in a simple exchange model, Fixed Point Theory and Applications 2013, 2013:104

32

33

Common set of international guidelines

for image submission

“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014

ISO 80000-2:2009

WCAG 2.0

34

Start from existing guidelines on image description

“Are figures accessible in mathematics academic journals?” - CSUN 2014