Where to Start with Math
The Universal Design Goals below are based on the Electronic Accessibility Rubric. Employees are expected to work towards meeting Universal Design Goals for their content.
Full Accessibility items are necessary to make content fully accessible. These items may require additional support or alternative access if needed for an accommodation.
Note: processes for accessible STEM are still being developed. The universal design goals reflect our current recommendations for faculty.
Universal Design Goals
Avoid Images of Equations
Avoid images or screenshots of equations. Coded math is more accessible, or can at least be converted into a more accessible format.
For existing content with images of equations, these can be converted to a more accessible format in a later stage (more advanced).
Create Digitally Authored Handouts
Handwritten content scanned into an electronic format are completely inaccessible. Create new handouts using digital authoring tools instead.
A secondary benefit of creating digital notes is improved legibility and better organization for all students.
New Content: Use Authoring Software
For new content, use authoring software that can generate MathML, MathJax, or ChemML. There are several ways to generate these formats.
You can still provide PDFs, but also provide one of the more accessible formats as an alternative. It is not currently possible to make STEM content accessible in a PDF. Adding alternative text to images of equations improves accessibility, but is not ideal.
- For those who prefer to code math in LaTeX, use authoring software that converts to HTML5 or EPUB. The conversion process automatically generates MathML.
- Use software that authors MathML directly, such as MathType, Pandoc, or Equatio.
- For Chemistry, use software that generates ChemML, such as MathType.
- AI may be able to convert images and coded equations to these formats.
Please email CSU IT Accessibility to check with the ATRC for license availability of these products.
Use Canvas Equation Editor
The Canvas equation editor produces MathML. Use the native equation editor instead of images or copying in your own code.
Avoid Microsoft Equation Editor
The Microsoft Equation Editor does not produce accessible math.
Full Accessibility
Convert Handwritten to Digital
- Use authoring software to recreate existing handwritten notes and handouts as digital versions.
- Use software with handwriting recognition such as Mathpix or Equatio to digitize new handouts and notes.
- AI may be able to take handwritten notes and convert them to MathML.
Existing PDFs: Convert to MathML
If you have digital originals, return to LaTeX and re-export to MathML or MathJax. Otherwise use math recognition software to convert PDFs and images of math to coded math.
If you don’t need to convert a lot of images at once, you can use a snapshot tool to capture one equation at a time.
If you have a lot of content with images, you may not want to have to author it all from scratch.
- InftyReader converts images of equations to code – it’s text recognition software for math. You still need to check the resulting output for accuracy using software such as MathType, but this is a good tool for bulk conversions.
Edit Results in MathML Equation Editor
Once you have the math recognized in a document using InftyReader, you need to edit the results using MathType.
The following video shows the process of using both InftyReader and MathType to convert images of math to MathML.