technical diagram description system query

[Kirk Reiser]

Hello everybody: I am slowly over time posting this request to all the
mailing lists I know and think might be related to the topic.  I am
hoping to gather enough interest that we can develop standardize
systems and get some implementation.


One of the irritations I have whenever I'm reading something technical
in text is the lack of useful representation of scientific or
technical notation.  It happens in every book and document in every
format from ASCII text to HTML and even in documents such as MS Word.
To a small extent we have some rough accessibility with basic
mathematical texts because most character sets offer some amount of
arithmetic related symbols and they are often necessary for
programming and/or scientific calculations.  Even then representing
calculus or other higher mathematical concepts are not well worked out
and certainly not standardized in any way.  What there is currently is
a mixed bag of .tex mark-up or text representation of Nemith code
symbols.

I would like to attempt to find standardized or common textual systems
and pull them together in one place as a resource for other people
writing new materials or editing previously available documents to
easily use.  if there are no predefined systems, I would like to try
to build systems for each of the technical and scientific disciplines
for future writers and editors to use.  I would also like to put
together a group of volunteers to edit at least one text in each
discipline so visually impaired students and readers can get past this
frustrating situation.  We would make the books and papers available
through the bookserve project or other facilities if any are
interested in participating.

Some of the disciplines which I believe need systems found or
developed include: physics, chemistry, electronics, mathematics and
any others people feel should be considered.

If any of you know of any representational systems for any technical
or scientific disciplines please write or contact me in someway to let
me know about them.

If anyone is interested in being involved in gathering and developing
symbolic systems or discussing them also please contact me.

If you or someone you know might be interested in helping edit books
and papers using these symbolic systems, once again please contact me.

Depending on how much response I receive will determine what type of
on going communication I put together.  If you have suggestions for
that I'd like to hear them as well.

I can be contacted at kirk at reisers.ca or on the #speakup channel on
freenode.net.

   Kirk Reiser

--
Kirk Reiser				The Computer Braille Facility
e-mail: kirk at braille.uwo.ca		University of Western Ontario
phone: (519) 661-3061