'Mathematics teachers who have worked with visually impaired students understand the unique challenges they face,' said Henry Warchall, Senior Adviser in the Division of Mathematical Sciences at the National Science Foundation, which funds the American Institute of Mathematics. The collaboration which solved the problem was formed in January, 2019, with the help of the American Institute of Mathematics, through its connections in the math research and math education communities. The hard part is conveying the structure of the book in a non-visual way, converting the mathematics formulas, and converting the graphs and diagrams. Converting the words is easy: Braille is just another alphabet. Automating the process is the key, because currently Braille books are created by skilled people retyping from the printed version, which involves considerable time and cost. Kolesnikov, a colleague of Siegel at Towson University, was recruited to the project in the Summer of 2018.

'Given the amazing technology available today, we thought it would be easy to piece together existing tools into an automated process,' said Alexei Kolesnikov. Siegel and Al Maneki, a retired NSA mathematician who serves as senior STEM advisor to the National Federation of the Blind and who is blind himself, decided to do something about it.

The book was ordered but took six months (and several thousand dollars) to prepare, causing the student significant delay in her studies. Siegel met a blind student who needed a statistics textbook for a required course.

'This project is about equity and equal access to knowledge,' said Martha Siegel, a Professor Emerita from Towson University in Maryland.

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