Digital accessibility guide

We are currently testing and exploring options for the complex task of making equations more accessible to screen reader users. 

You may have noticed low accessibility scores on your Moodle modules if you are exporting LaTeX to PDF. This is because the PDF is "untagged". Tags provide structure by identifying different types of content such as Headings, Tables and Links. Tagged PDFs should be available by default in 2024. You can improve the accessibility of your PDFs using the LaTeX template available from The University of York.

Our initial tests of LaTeX outputs from different modules have shown that the HTML format from bookdown has performed the best for accessibility e.g. MA3662 Lecture 2 (city.ac.uk). It is worth considering RMarkdown/bookdown (University of Bath) as an alternative to LaTeX as HTML works well with assistive technologies.

If you have handwritten maths notation, we recommend using Mathpix to digitise your notes to machine-readable text. It will export to a variety of formats including LaTeX. Select."Go to Snip Web" from the top bar menu once you log in to upload your notes.  

You can also use Pandoc to convert to another format, such as TeX to HTML. You can then upload the webfolder to display as a HMTL page on Moodle. To do this:

• Add a File resource on your Moodle module
• Drag the zipped webfolder into the Select files section
• Right-click the folder and select Unzip
• Right-click on the HTML file and select Set main file
• In the Appearance section select Embed

If you need support improving or testing the accessibility of your materials, or you have discovered any tools and techniques that make the production of accessible maths materials easier, please get in touch via the Digital Accessibility - IT Self-Service Portal (service-now.com).

Equations must be added in the maths environment available in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, to ensure that mathematical characters and symbols accessible to screen readers.

• Do add an equation, by selecting the Insert tab and choosing the Equation tool (characterised with the pi symbol) under the Symbols section. The keyboard shortcut is "Alt"+ "=" on a Windows system and control + "=" on a Mac system.
• Do not use the Insert Symbol characters or super or subscripts fonts which will not be read out accurately by a screen reader.
• Do not insert images of equations as these will require accurate text descriptions.

There are three ways to add an equation:

1. Choose from the editable Built-in equations.
2. Insert New Equation.
3. Convert handwritten equations to editable text using Ink to Math.

Equations can be typed in using Unicode or LaTex (Word only) input and displayed in Professional 2-dimensional form or Linear 1-dimensional form.

Please refer to Microsoft’s guidance on writing equations or formulas and linear format equations using UnicodeMath and LaTeX in Word.