JAWS concatenates an Office Math expression's speech text with the text content the expression causing mispronunciation of the content

[brichwin]

Description:

When speaking a sentence containing Office Math expressions in a MS Word document, JAWS concatenates the "math speech text" for the expressions with the text following the content. This issue does not occur when using the NVDA screen reader with the same content. This issue might be related to #6.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Launch the JAWS screen reader
2. Configure JAWS:
   a. Enable MathCAT
   b. Configure MathCAT
   1. Speech Style: ClearSpeak
   2. Math Verbosity: Verbose
      c. Restart JAWS if changes were made
3. Launch Microsoft Word 365 (desktop app) and start a new blank document
4. Type the sentence: The expressions a=b and y=3s are examples of equations.
5. Convert a=b into an Office Math expression by selecting it, pressing Alt+=, and then pressing Ctrl+=
6. Arrow over to the y=3s expression
7. Convert y=3s into an Office Math expression by selecting it, pressing Alt+=, and then pressing Ctrl+=
8. Move to the start of the document and have JAWS read aloud the document using the "Say all" reading mode (JAWS key+Down Arrow)
9. Observe that the sentence is spoken as
   The expressions MathContent a is equal to band MathContent y is equal to 3 sare examples of equations.
   instead of as
   The expressions MathContent a is equal to b and MathContent y is equal to 3 s are examples of equations.

Expected Behavior:

When reading aloud a document containing Office Math expressions, the Office Math expressions should be spoken distinctly and independently of the surrounding text content. For example, the sentence "The expressions $a=b$ and $y=3s$ are examples of equations." should be spoken as: "The expressions MathContent a is equal to b and MathContent y is equal to 3 s are examples of equations."

Observed Behavior:

When reading aloud a document containing Office Math expressions, the speech text for the Office Math expressions is erroneously concatenated with the text content following the expression despite a space being present in the text immediately after the Office Math expression(s). For example, the sentence "The expressions $a=b$ and $y=3s$ are examples of equations." should be spoken as: "The expressions MathContent a is equal to band MathContent y is equal to 3 sare examples of equations."

Version Information:

• OS Version:
  -- OS Name: Microsoft Windows 11 Enterprise
  -- Version: 10.0.22621 Build 22621
  -- Locale: United States
• Microsoft Word Version:
  -- Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise
  -- Version 2402 (Build 17328.20550 Click-to-Run)
• JAWS Version and Settings
  -- JAWS Professional Version 2024.2409.2
  -- Configured to use MathCAT with ClearSpeak Verbose

Example Video and Sample Document:

I have provided a link to a short example video demonstrating the issue, and attached the Word document used in the video.

Attachments:

• Video: When JAWS is reading Office Math expressions in MS Word, speech text for math expressions is concatenated with the text following the math expression (even with a space between them) (4 minutes)
• Various In-Situ Office Math Examples.docx

Credits

Thanks to Jennifer Marsala, Instructional Designer, Department of Mathematics, University of Houston for reporting this issue.

[GeorgeKerscher]

NVDA is also mis reading the expression. When reading continuously, NVDA reads the first expression and skips the "and" and the second expression.

When reading by word, ctrl+right arrow, the sentence is spoken correctly.
When reading one character at a time with the right arrow, the sentence is read as expected.

[GeorgeKerscher]

Are George and Brian getting different results with NVDA?

[brichwin]

haha.. I just wrote that up as a separate issue #24

[jenmarsala]

I reported this issue to Vispero (JAWS) on 6/19/24, and sent some additional examples of the issue to them on 7/5/24 and 9/16/24.

Vispero classified it as a bug on 7/5/24 as follows:
Bug 87633: JAWS Combining Math Content with Next Word in Microsoft Word
(If it's helpful, my original case number was assigned Vispero Case# 00723098.)

On 7/5/24, I got a response from Bill at Vispero, saying, "We are seeing issues with multiple screen readers in Word and math content. Development is looking in to this but I don't have a time frame on a fix or a work around yet." When I corresponded with Bill again on 9/16/24, I was told that they added the documents and comments to the bug, but I did not receive any further update about the status.

[brichwin]

In case it is relevant to this issue, Neil Soiffer added a MathCAT issue for eating the character after the expression: NSoiffer/MathCATForPython#80