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Accessibility Toolkit for Open Educational Resources (OER): Math and Science Equations

Accessibility guide for creating OER

Current Best Practices when it comes to Math accessibility

Math is a world of its own when it comes to accessibility.

  • Current best practice is to author all math equations using code and editors like LaTeX or MathML.
    • LaTeX can be coded by hand
    • MathML typically is made by either an equation editor (like MathType) or through a conversion process from LaTeX (which MathType can do). 
  • Never paste images of math equations, these are not accessible.
    • Many of the math equations one finds in digital environments are simply static bitmaps (digital drawings) of equation images in GIF, PNG, or JPEG formats. These images can be seen with the human eye, but they are devoid of non-visual information that can be utilized by assistive technologies. Such image formats are, by themselves, inherently inaccessible.

Useful sites on math accessibility

Creative Commons LicenseUnless otherwise noted, these accessibility guides were created by Accessibility Librarian Amy Wolfe for CUNY and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If you re-use, remix or link to this guide, it would be appreciated if you could notify the creator Accessibility Librarian Amy Wolfe.