Accessible STEM Course Materials

This guide provides actionable strategies to ensure your mathematical expressions, digital documents, and figures are fully usable by every student.

Accessibility Challenges with Math and Technical Content

In STEM disciplines, tools like LaTeX are widely used because they generate beautifully typeset formulas and equations. However, standard PDF files generated by traditional LaTeX setups lack basic document structure tags. As a result, screen readers (the assistive software used by visually impaired students) cannot read the math aloud correctly, and the documents often break when students try to review them on mobile devices or note-taking tablets.

While standard word processors like Microsoft Word offer "point-and-click" equation editors, they can be tedious to format and still occasionally fail when exported to PDF. 

Best Practices for Creating Course Materials

Leverage Built-In Equation Editors

• Canvas Rich Content Editor (RCE): When building pages, assignments, or quizzes directly in Canvas, always use the built-in Insert Math Equation tool. This automatically produces math formats that coordinate nicely with screen readers.
• Microsoft Word and PowerPoint: If authoring in these platforms, use the MathType plug-in or the modern built-in equation builder rather than pasting equations as plain text. When converting to PDF, always use the "Save As PDF" or "Export" features to preserve math tags, rather than "Print to PDF".

Use Image Equations Only as a Last Resort

If you absolutely must save an equation as an image file, you are required to add detailed Alternative Text (Alt Text). Write out exactly how the equation would be spoken aloud.

Example Alt Text: Instead of leaving an image nameless, provide: "X is equal to the square root of 4 plus 5".

Clean Up Legacy Content with OCR Tools

If you have scanned PDFs or flattened images of old math material, tools like MathPix can instantly read the image and generate accessible code formats (like MathML or LaTeX tokens) that can be easily pasted into modern web editors.

Writing Effective Alt Text for Diagrams and Graphs

Visual aids require descriptive, concise text alternatives so screen readers can relay the context to non-visual learners. Keep descriptions short and avoid focusing on minor aesthetic details.

Graphs

• Provide the title (if it is baked into the image file).
• Identify the type of graph (e.g., bar chart, line plot, scatter plot).
• Explicitly define the axes, including the specific variables being measured and the scale.
• Conclude with a brief, single-sentence summary of the core data trend or takeaway.

Complex Diagrams

• Clearly identify what the diagram is mapping right at the beginning.
• Describe the content sequentially (e.g., following a flowchart from left to right) or from a general overview down to specifics.
• Do not describe exact geometric shapes unless the shape itself carries specific mathematical meaning.