Fractions - MS Word - Accessible Information - JAWS - NVDA

Fractions and Speech

It may never crop up of course, that document you are creating - or all the documents you might ever create for that matter - may never include even one solitary fraction. If that's the case, you'll probably want to skip over this post.

But imagine it does contain fractions? Then imagine that one of the people who needs to read that document uses a screenreader such as JAWS or NVDA... Hmmm, feeling the shivers a bit now I'll bet - how can something so seemingly insignificant create such a potential fuss? The great cry goes up, how am I going to write the fractions so that JAWS will read them? And... how does JAWS read them anyway!?" So, in this post, I'm going to spend a bit of time talking about fractions...

The first thing to understand is that there are several ways of actually inputting fractions into MS Word. For example, you can:

• Type in a fraction like this - 1/2 or 1/4
• Create and display a fraction inside a Word field - I'll explain this in a bit.
• Or you can insert a common fraction using the specific ASCII code - I'll explain that shortly too.

What you as a document creator need to be aware of though is that not all screenreaders will read across all of these methods equally. So, let's investigate each of the above and see what happens.

The All Manual Way For Fractions

It may come as no surprise that the most obvious way of inputting a fraction, just typing in the numerator followed by a slash and then the denominator with no spaces is likely to prove the most accessible across a diverse range of assistive tech. With an example fraction like "1/5", JAWS will simply repeat the characters and say "one slash 5". (Of course the listener will have to build the contextual meaning around this, something that should be fairly straightforward so long as the surrounding text is useful.)

However, what might not be so apparent is something that can happen when you type in the more common fractions, such as one half, one quarter or three quarters. Try out the following:

1. Launch MS Word and create a new document if you don't have one open already.
2. Type in: 1/2 and press ENTER to insert another paragraph.
3. Now move back up and check the fraction you have just input. Is JAWS announcing "1 slash 2" or is it saying "one half"?
4. On a different line, type in "3/12" - once again check to hear how JAWS announces what you have typed in. JAWS should indicate "3 slash twelve".

So, why the change in echo with the half? Well, it's because the text on screen is actually different - MS Word has automatically changed it without you even realising it. This is all due to a checkbox in the Autoformat As You Type tab, labelled "(Replace as you type) fractions (1/2) with the fraction character." The bottom line is that Word automatically replaces three individual characters with one character, representing the common fraction. This explains the different echo with JAWS.

If you want to change this behaviour in MS Word so that there is no automatic formatting then try the following:

Toggle Fraction Autoformatting As You Type On and Off (Office 2007)

1. In MS Word, press ALT F to open the main menu via the Office button.
2. Press the letter I to activate the Word Options button directly. Alternatively, use the TAB key to put focus on the button and press SPACEBAR to activate it.
3. In the Word Options dialog box, press the DOWN ARROW until you have focus on the list option called Proofing.
4. With focus on Proofing press the TAB key to move to the Autocorrect Options button and tap SPACEBAR to activate it. Alternatively, when you put focus on Proofing, you can use ALT A to activate the button directly.
5. The Word Options multi-page dialog box opens up. Use CONTROL TAB to move between the pages to focus on the correct one which is labelled: Autoformat As You Type.
6. With focus on the correct page, press the TAB key to locate the (Replace as you type) Fractions with Fraction Character checkbox. Use the SPACEBAR to toggle the status of the checkbox in the usual way.
7. When you have set the checkbox status as required, press the ENTER key to confirm the changes and close the dialog box. (You might want to explore the other options here though, in which case just TAB through to the OK button and press SPACEBAR when you're done.)
8. Focus will return to the previous dialog box, once again TAB through and press SPACEBAR to confirm.

After you have toggled the Autoformat option off, when you type "1/2" in the Word document, it will stay as three individual characters exactly as you typed.

Fractions and EQ Fields

Sounds impressive doesn't it? And in a sense it kind of is, but using fields in documents has something of a difficult history for screenreader users especially and it should come as no surprise that this method will result in something pretty inaccessible to software like NVDA and JAWS without some serious hand-holding. However, don't discount this method entirely - especially if you need a paper copy of the work containing the fractions. From a visual perspective at least, the fractions produced using this method are large and clear and could be suitable for a low vision user. That said, from an electronic document perspective, bear in mind that the bottom line is this: using these EQ fields will result in an output that is not automatically echoed with a screenreader. Although it is technically possible to still work with the fields as we will discover. Anyway, let's explore!

Create a Fraction Using an EQ Field

1. In a new blank document in MS Word, press the keystroke of CONTROL F9 to insert a blank field area. Bear in mind that if you are using a screenreader there will be no echo when you do this. The main thing is: do not press the arrow keys to move the cursor or you will lose your positioning inside the field you've just created!
2. Type in the text for the fraction you require, it must be in the following format: EQ \F(X,Y) - where X,Y is the numerator and the denominator. For example, writing the fraction 3/36 the text would be EQ \F(3,36). To confirm, the equation text is E Q space backslash F Open Bracket First Number Comma Second Number Close Bracket.
3. When you have typed this code, use SHIFT F9 to toggle the code view - doing this switches between the equation you have just input and the result of that equation - providing there are no errors of course!

NOTE: The equation text view in the field codes can be read with JAWS and NVDA, however the output or result of the equation cannot - or, more accurately, may only be partially read. So, when working with speech, use the code view at all times. A useful hotkey to remember here is ALT F9 as this hotkey will toggle between the two different field views for all the fields in the current document at the same time. Very useful that one!

By default, the output of this equation field method creates a fraction consisting of the numbers you have specified. The actual display of the fraction is quite large and physically spans two lines. In that sense, low vision computer users may find the display of these fractions quite friendly and useful. Anyone using speech on the other hand, will be unable to read the fraction output on screen and will instead have to toggle the field codes back on using SHIFT F9 or ALT F9.

Inputting a Fraction Character using the ASCII Code

Okay, you thought that using a blank field and manually entering an equation code was fun? Well, think again. The real hardcore here is all about memorising a bunch of ASCII codes for specific fraction characters. Yes indeed, you can input the ASCII code for a common fraction directly into a Word document. Let's go through this now using an example where I am inserting the ASCII fraction character for one half:

Insert a Common Fraction Character Using the ASCII Code

1. Open MS Word and ensure you are in a new blank document.
2. Tap the NUMBER LOCK key on your keyboard, this is normally located at the top left of the numberpad section on a typical PC keyboard. (Note that if you are using a laptop you will need to locate your Function key - normally labelled "Fn" - to access your numberpad).
3. With number lock active, hold the ALT key down and type 0189 using the numberpad keys.
4. Tap the NUMBER LOCK key to turn the mode off and check what has been input into the Word document. You should find a fraction character for one half - JAWS will announce this as "one half" while NVDA announces "a half".

Okay, let's have a bit more of this ASCII action. Here is a small table with some of the more common codes - I've also included a couple of columns to give you an idea of how well recent versions of JAWS and NVDA cope in reading the characters.

Fraction	ASCII Code	JAWS V15 Announces	NVDA 2015.1 Announces
One Quarter	ALT 0188	One fourth	A quarter
One Half	ALT 0189	One half	A half
Three Quarters	ALT 0190	Three fourths	Three quarter
One Third	ALT 8531	No echo	One third
Two Thirds	ALT 8532	No echo	Two thirds
One Fifth	ALT 8533	No echo	No echo
Two Fifths	ALT 8534	No echo	No echo
Three Fifths	ALT 8535	No echo	No echo
Four Fifths	ALT 8536	No echo	No echo
One Sixth	ALT 8537	No echo	No echo
Five Sixths	ALT 8538	No echo	No echo
One Eighth	ALT 8539	No echo	No echo
Three Eighths	ALT 8540	No echo	No echo
Five Eighths	ALT 8541	No echo	No echo
Seven Eighths	ALT 8542	No echo	No echo

Clearly you can tell that some of these fraction characters are not going to be good choices as screenreader users will struggle to know that anything is even there in some cases. I should also point out that some of these characters are very narrow so may not magnify well and, at the very least, may need to have a bigger font size for some readers.

Summary

So where does this leave us? Pretty well back at the beginning really! I mentioned earlier that inputting the fraction as individual characters is the safest option for both mag and speech. Of course, there is nothing to really stop you using a blank field or using some of the ASCII codes but you must bear in mind that those methods may result in some difficulties and require more support and context-building with the AT user. As with all other things regarding document accessibility, whatever you decide to do, keep it consistent. Sometimes less is more.

Have fun!