B. Stoeger Linz, Austria Play (11min) Download: FLV | MOV | Ogg | mp3

Since 1991, the University of Linz has been supporting people with special needs in university education. Support is provided in a triple manner: At school – to find a decision for a university course –, during university studies, and afterwards, to enter the labour market. We describe our far–reaching set of support services, and we report about our experience with it.

E. Mendelova, N. Cuciuc Slovakia Play (11min) Download: FLV | MOV | Ogg | mp3

An early and targeted preparation for the university study is a fundamental prerequisite of future success. Paper offers an overview of activities of the Support Centre for Visually Impaired Students focused on early preparation of students with VI for studying sciences at university and forms of special support for students and academic staff during the study. As a result of a TEMPUS project the “Support Centre without barriers” at Moldova State University was created. The state of the art of study opportunities at MSU, mission of the centre and plans for an internatinal co-operation will be presented.

O. Caprotti Helsinki, Finland Play (20min) Download: FLV | MOV | Ogg | mp3

In this talk we describe the ways in which the JEM, Joining Educational Mathematics, thematic network can help in the efforts of educating about accessibility of science, and of mathematics in particular.

M. Kohlhase Milano, Italy Play (22min) Download: FLV | MOV | Ogg | mp3

We describe an experiment of transforming large collections of LaTeX documents to more machine–understandable representations. Concretely, we are translating the collection of scientific publications of the Cornell e–Print Archive (arXiv)using the LaTeXtoXML converter which is currently under development.

L. Parasiliti, C. Comaschi, C. Bernareggi Milano, Italy Play (16min) Download: FLV | MOV | Ogg | mp3

Notation is a tool of thought in reasoning and communication. However, to become an effective tool of thought, each notation expression must be properly perceived. Blind and partially sighted persons run into difficulty in working with spatially represented mathematical expressions.

S. Cesaretti Urbino, Italy Play (18min) Download: FLV | MOV | Ogg | mp3

Computation programs (e.g., MatLab, Mathematica, Maple, etc.) are widely used in university scientific courses. The major access barriers for blind and partially sighted users concern speech and tactile interaction with the front end.

This presentation at first introduces some of the most effective techniques which can be employed by a blind or partially sighted user to access some widely used computation programs. Moreover, a prototype accessible front-end for Mathematica software is presented.

B. Stoeger Linz, Austria Play (13min) Download: FLV | MOV | Ogg | mp3

Within the EC funded project MICOLE, several ideas for a multi-modal and collaborative software solution to support blind people in accessing, but also in actually doing mathematics were formulated. We shall outline these ideas and demonstrate two prototypes that have been developed within the project.

C. Freda and A. Pepino Napoli, Italy Play (17min) Download: FLV | MOV | Ogg | mp3

In order for a technological aid to be efficient and efficacious in the educational sphere, it must increase the chances and capabilities of the pupil with a disability, and respect the user’s requirements and characteristics while avoiding forcing. Therefore it should be easy for teachers to understand and use. This is the result our research group has reached upon concluding a period of experimentation of software developed by us called BlindMath.

P. Lecky and M. Hornansky Bratislava, Slovakia Play (20min) Download: FLV | MOV | Ogg | mp3

Two years ago the Support centre for visually impaired students at Comenius University in Bratislava started with localization of Lambda editor. After successful adaptation some few blind secondary school students were equipped with the software.

The first part of presentation informs about our experience with this system, about the localization process of Lambda.

In the second part offers the basic information about Lambda courses for secondary schoole students and teachers, about experiences collected during these courses but also during usage in real environment (mathematical lessons, exams, homeworks…).