STEM Accessibility

This presentation explores the critical role metadata plays in creating truly accessible digital content. The definition of accessibility is shifting from providing alternate versions upon request to ensuring all digital content is usable "as is" through robust, embedded metadata.

Viewers will learn to distinguish between raw digital content and the underlying file structures (e.g., titles, authors, and layout headers) that allow assistive technologies, like screen readers, to function effectively.  By examining the evolution of various formats, this video  seeks to empower content creators to look beyond the file extension and focus on the essential data that makes content universally accessible.

Dr. Reuter (Stony Brook University) outlines the unique challenges that arise when making mathematically dense, figure-rich, and table-heavy documents accessible, and surveys four remediation techniques appropriate for a range of document types and source formats.

Topics include: converting LaTeX to HTML, using MathPix for PDF-to-Word conversion, working directly in Microsoft Word, and a forward-looking discussion of native accessible PDF generation via LuaLaTeX and PDF 2.0. Whether you are an instructional designer, faculty member, or accessibility professional, this presentation provides practical, format-specific guidance for making technical academic content compliant and usable for all learners.

This presentation demonstrates how to convert LaTeX source documents into accessible HTML pages that meet WCAG accessibility guidelines, a requirement for STEM educators and content creators in higher education. Using the Tex4ht MathML converter (included in standard LaTeX distributionsm such as MacTeX), this video walks through the complete workflow: running LaTeX source through an HTML converter, embedding the output into a Brightspace course page via the Source Code editor, and performing the manual remediation steps necessary to bring the content into full compliance (e.g., heading structure, alt text, table markup).

This workflow is most applicable when the original LaTeX source is available. If you are working from a PDF-only file, alternative remediation strategies will be addressed in subsequent videos in this series, including approaches using MathPix and Microsoft Word.

Making mathematical and scientific content accessible is one of the most challenging tasks in digital accessibility, particularly when source materials exist as scanned PDFs or LaTeX-compiled documents. This presentation provides a comprehensive, step-by-step demonstration of how MathPix can be used to convert STEM content into accessible, WCAG-compliant formats.

Topics include: OCR-based conversion of PDFs, direct LaTeX source integration via MathPix Notes, remediation of mathematical typesetting, and the application of Word's built-in accessibility tools. 

In this video, we walk through the process of creating a Microsoft Word document with digital accessibility in mind, addressing mathematical notation, images, tables, and document structure. Topics include: entering and converting LaTeX-style math using the Microsoft Equation Editor, adding and captioning images with meaningful alt text, working around Word's limitations with equation numbering, creating accessible tables with properly tagged header rows, and applying semantic heading structure.