Thai visually impaired's requirements to access mathematics via an automatic math reader

Abstract

We present the requirements to access mathematics for the Thai visually impaired students. Blind and visually impaired (VI) students agreed to participate in an interview to determine the requirements for using a text-to-speech (ITS) system with the capability to automatically read math expressions. The interview consisted of two parts: the students' background characteristics and the students' difficulties in and requirement for using TTS systems to read math expressions. Our results show that the students who are blind and visually impaired had difficulties to access mathematics. The students have basic computer skills with standard software e.g., Microsoft Word. Therefore, the findings suggest that the students desire assistant technology to better access to mathematics.