Important Accessibility Update: For university-wide digital accessibility guidelines, federal compliance requirements, and general software tutorials (including Microsoft Office), please visit the official Texas A&M Digital Accessibility Hub: accessibility.tamu.edu.
The resources below are specialized technical workflows and tools specifically curated for College of Engineering faculty and instructional staff.
We have gathered helpful accessibility resources for complex STEM content, specialized engineering course materials, and eSAIL-supported platforms.
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Math & STEM Accessibility
When creating PDFs that include mathematical equations, the method eSAIL recommends is to convert your LaTeX (.tex) file to Microsoft Word using Pandoc, then export the file to PDF using Word’s built-in “Save As PDF” option. In testing, this workflow consistently preserved equation meaning for screen readers and performed well with LMS accessibility scoring tools Ally and Panorama.
Newer LaTeX workflows that use PDF/UA-2 tagging (e.g., the LaTeX Tagged PDF Project) can also produce accessible PDFs with properly structured equations. However, UA-2–aligned PDFs are expected to receive lower accessibility scores in Canvas (Ally) because the system does not yet fully support PDF 2.0 tagging, which can cause equations to be incorrectly flagged as “images with no descriptions” even when they are accessible to screen readers.
Accessible Math Languages & Tools for Content Presentation:
- Using the LaTeX prototype for accessible PDF (The LaTeX Project)
- Creating Accessible LaTeX PDFs: PDF/UA-2 Compliance in Overleaf (December 2025)
- MathCAT Add-on for NVDA & MathML (MathCAT generates speech and braille from MathML.)
Specialized Content Workflows
- Generating and Applying Long Descriptions of Complex Images
- Making Handwritten Notes Accessible
- Smart Note License Request for TAMU Engineering Faculty
