Accessibility Features

MathJax’s mission is to provide the best tools for mathematics on the web. Naturally, this means for everyone and thus accessibility is an important concern for us.

MathJax User Interface

The MathJax user interface consists of the MathJax Menu and the various MathJax Processing Messages, cf the core configuration.

The user interface is localized to over 20 languages and many more partial localizations thanks to the fantastic support of the community at TranslateWiki.net.

The MathJax Menu also follows WCAG 2.0 guidelines. Each MathJax fragment is included in the tab order; the menu can be triggered via the space or menu key; and navigation in the menu is possible using the arrow keys.

MathJax Accessibility Extensions

The MathJax Accessibility extensions provide several tools and features that enable universal rendering of mathematics on the web. They enhance rendering both visually and aurally. In particular:

An innovative responsive rendering of mathematical content through collapsing and exploration of subexpressions.
An aural rendering tool providing on-the-fly speech-text for mathematical content and its subexpressions using various rule sets.
An exploration tool, allowing for meaningful exploration of mathematical content including multiple highlighting features and synchronized aural rendering.

The Accessibility Extensions support the widest selection of browsers, operating systems, and assistive technologies as they only require the use of well-supported web standards such as WAI-ARIA, in particular labels and live regions.

Note

We strongly suggest that you use the MathJax Accessibility extensions to provide the best possible experience for all users.

Legacy Support via AssistiveMML.js

Some screen readers support MathML, MathJax’s internal format. Screenreaders like ChromeVox, JAWS (on IE), and Texthelp support MathJax directly while other screenreaders can benefit from the AssistiveMML extension.

The AssistiveMML extension embeds visually hidden MathML alongside MathJax’s visual rendering while hiding the visual rendering from assistive technology (AT) such as screenreaders. This allows most MathML-enabled screenreaders to read out the underlying mathematics. It’s important to note that Presentation MathML is usually not expressive enough to voice the mathematics properly in all circumstances, which is why screenreaders have to rely on heuristics to analyze the MathML semantically.

The quality of MathML support in screenreaders varies greatly, with different levels of MathML feature support, different speech rule sets, and different voicing technologies.

The expected result for MathJax given the current state of technology is roughly the following:

The visually-hidden MathML is read out correctly by AT (i.e., not just the character strings but, e.g., <mfrac> leads to “fraction”; this will vary with the MathML support of the screenreader).
The visual rendering is not read out by AT
The MathJax Menu triggers AT to say “clickable” before each math element.
- This allows keyboard users to enter the MathJax Menu via space or menu key.
The visually hidden MathML does not get an outline (usually placed at an odd location due to the target of the outline being visually hidden).
- except in iOS VoiceOver, where this allows the user to hook into VoiceOver’s exploration features.

Support Matrix (AssistiveMML.js)

Below is a summary of results for MathML enabled screenreaders and the legacy AssistiveMML extension, based on tests as well as user reports.

Screenreader	Browser	OS	Usable?	Bugs
ChromeVox	Chrome	any	+1	no bugs
NVDA	any	WinXP	DNA	MathPlayer 4 does not support WinXP
NVDA	Chrome	any	DNA	Chrome issues prevent MathML support by NVDA
NVDA	Firefox	Win7	+1	no bugs
NVDA	Firefox	Win8.1	+1	no bugs
NVDA	Firefox	Win10	+1	no bugs
NVDA	MS Edge	Win10	DNA	Edge issues prevent MathML support by NVDA
NVDA	IE11	Win8.1	+1	no bugs
NVDA	IE10	Win7	+1	no bugs
NVDA	IE9	Win7	+1	no bugs
JAWS	any	WinXP	DNA	JAWS 15 was the last version to support Windows XP but MathML support in JAWS starts with JAWS 16
JAWS	Chrome	any	DNA	JAWS only supports IE and Firefox
JAWS	Firefox	Win8.1	+1	no bugs
JAWS	Firefox	Win7	+1	no bugs
JAWS	Firefox	Win10	+1	no bugs
JAWS	MS Edge	Win10	DNA	JAWS only supports IE and Firefox
JAWS	IE11	Win8.1	+1	no bugs
JAWS	IE10	Win7	+1	no bugs
JAWS	IE9	Win7	+1	no bugs
VoiceOver	Safari	OSX	+1	see notes below
VoiceOver	Chrome	OSX	DNA	Chrome and VoiceOver issues prevent MathML support in this combination.
VoiceOver	Firefox	OSX	DNA	Chrome and Firefox issues prevent MathML support in this combination.
Orca	Firefox	Ubuntu 15.10	+1	no bugs
Orca	Web	Ubuntu 15.10	DNA	Chrome issues prevent MathML support by ORCA
Orca	Chrome(ium)	Ubuntu 15.10	DNA	Chrome issues prevent MathML support by ORCA

Notes on Apple VoiceOver

VoiceOver on OSX
- Safari. The visually-hidden MathML is read out and gets an outline. Visual rendering is ignored correctly. VoiceOver somtimes drops parts of the equation due to its partial MathML support.
- Chrome. The visually-hidden MathML is detected but VoiceOver does not read it correctly (only e.g., “4 items detected; math”; this seems like a VO bug); an outline is added. Visual rendering is ignored correctly.
- Firefox. The visually-hidden MathML is only read as a string of contained characters; an outline is added. Visual rendering is ignored correctly.
VoiceOver on iOS
- The “slide two fingers from top to read screen” method will read the visually-hidden MathML. Visual rendering is ignored correctly.
- Manual exploration.
  - Exploration by swiping left/right will read the visually-hidden MathML. Visual rendering is ignored correctly.
  - Tapping on an equation does not work due to the visually-hidden MathML being placed in a 1px box.

Notes on MathPlayer 4 and Internet Explorer 11

Design Science suggests that you always use IE’s Enterprise mode for MathPlayer in IE11, see their documentation. However, it seems that this is only required for MathPlayer’s visual rendering to work and this additionally requires the MathPlayer BrowserHelperAddon to be active in IE.

Unfortunately, the MathPlayer BrowserHelperAddon can lead to crashes. E.g., if you switch MathJax’s output to the NativeMML output, MathPlayer will crash IE11; you’ll have to clear the MathJax cookie to reset things. Also, in a plain MathML sample (without MathJax), clicking on the MathPlayer rendering will crash IE11.

Using IE’s Enterprise mode should work with NVDA and the AssistiveMML extension but they don’t seem to work with NVDA and plain MathML pages.

We suggest you do not switch on IE’s Enterprise mode on pages using MathJax and we also have to strongly suggest that you not use the BrowserHelperAddon with MathJax on IE11.