The LaTeX Accessibility Crisis: Why 95% of STEM Courses Are Non-Compliant

Updated March 22, 2026

Here's the problem no one is talking about:

95-99% of mathematicians use LaTeX to create course materials. But LaTeX-generated PDFs are completely inaccessible to students who use screen readers.

With the April 2027 WCAG 2.1 deadline (extended from 2026 via the IFR), STEM departments are facing a crisis.

What is LaTeX?

LaTeX is a document preparation system used by virtually all STEM faculty to typeset:

Math equations: LaTeX fractions, LaTeX integrals, LaTeX summations
Chemistry diagrams: ChemFig notation
Physics formulas: Custom notation
Computer science: Algorithms, pseudocode

Why do faculty use LaTeX instead of Microsoft Word?

From Reddit's r/Professors:

"95-99% of all mathematicians use LaTeX to compile PDFs. Microsoft Equation Editor is restrictive, less efficient, requires paid services."

"LaTeX is the industry standard for scientific publishing. Asking faculty to stop using it is like asking them to stop using email."

The Accessibility Problem

When you compile a LaTeX document to PDF, the equations are rendered as images. Screen readers see this:

Visual: "x = (-b ± √(b² - 4ac)) / 2a"
Screen reader: [silence, or "image"]

Students with visual disabilities cannot access math content. At all.

Why Existing Solutions Don't Work

Option 1: Microsoft Equation Editor

Problem: "Restrictive, less efficient, requires paid services"
Reality: Faculty won't switch (decades of LaTeX documents)

Option 2: MathML by Hand

Problem: Too time-consuming (hours per document)
Reality: Faculty don't have time

Option 3: YuJa Panorama / Blackboard Ally

Problem: Don't support LaTeX at all
Reality: STEM departments are completely stuck

Option 4: Do Nothing

Problem: 100% of STEM courses are non-compliant
Reality: Not an option after April 2027

The Real-World Impact

Mid-sized university, 50 math/science faculty:

2,000 LaTeX documents (lecture notes, exams, problem sets)
Each document: 10-50 equations
Total equations: 20,000-100,000

Manual MathML conversion:

Time per equation: 5-15 minutes
Total time: 1,667-25,000 hours
Cost at $50/hour: $83K-$1.25M

And that's just ONE department.

How Aelira Solves This

Aelira is the only solution with LaTeX/MathML conversion:

Step 1: LaTeX → MathML Conversion

Input: LaTeX equation (fraction example: "(x² + 2x + 1) / (x - 1)")

Output: Accessible MathML markup that screen readers can parse and announce properly

Screen reader output: "x squared plus 2x plus 1, divided by x minus 1"

Step 2: Natural Language Descriptions

Aelira uses Ollama AI (privacy-first, self-hosted) to generate:

LaTeX: "Integral from 0 to infinity of e^(-x²) dx"

Natural language: "The integral from 0 to infinity of e to the power of negative x squared, with respect to x"

Why this matters: Screen reader users get meaningful context, not just raw math notation.

Step 3: Batch Processing

Speed: 1,000 equations in minutes (not weeks)
Accuracy: 97%+ (supports amsmath, ChemFig, physics notation)
Cost: $999/month per department (vs $1M+ manual work)

Supported LaTeX Packages

Aelira supports the most common STEM notation:

Mathematics (amsmath)

Fractions: LaTeX fractions
Integrals: LaTeX integrals
Summations: LaTeX summations
Limits: "Limit as x approaches infinity"
Matrices: LaTeX matrices

Chemistry (ChemFig)

Molecular structures
Reaction diagrams
Chemical equations

Physics

Vectors: LaTeX vectors
Derivatives: LaTeX fractions
Partial derivatives: LaTeX fractions

Computer Science

Algorithms (pseudocode)
Set notation
Logic symbols

Real Example: Computer Science Department

Institution: Large state university

Challenge:

50 faculty members
2,000 LaTeX documents (lecture slides, exams, homework)
April 2027 deadline (extended from 2026)

Solution (Aelira):

Week 1: Uploaded all LaTeX files to Aelira
Week 2: Bulk processed 2,000 documents → MathML + natural language
Week 3: Faculty reviewed + approved output
Week 4: Integrated with Canvas LMS

Result:

2,000 documents remediated in 4 weeks (vs 2 years manual)
97% compliance score
Cost: $999/month (vs $500K manual remediation)

How It Works (Technical)

For IT directors who want details:

Upload: Faculty uploads LaTeX files (.tex, .pdf) to Aelira
Parse: Aelira extracts LaTeX equations using regex + AST parsing
Convert: LaTeX → MathML (using pandoc + custom rules)
Enhance: Ollama AI generates natural language descriptions
Output: Accessible HTML with embedded MathML
Integrate: Export to Canvas, Blackboard, or download HTML

Privacy: Ollama runs on our servers (not OpenAI/Google), so your course content never leaves our infrastructure.

Pricing

Pilot Pricing (Free for 6 weeks, then 50% off):

US: $499/month per department (normally $999)
Australia: $749 AUD/month per department (normally $1,499)

Annual Pricing (save 17%):

US: $12,990/year per department
Australia: $19,990 AUD/year per department

Includes:

Unlimited users (all department staff)
10,000 files/month (LaTeX, PDF, PowerPoint, video)
LaTeX/MathML conversion
PDF OCR + remediation
PowerPoint bulk scanning
Priority support

Why This Matters

The April 2027 deadline (extended from 2026 via the IFR). STEM departments face:

100% non-compliance (LaTeX PDFs are inaccessible)
No good solutions (YuJa, Ally don't support LaTeX)
Massive manual workload ($1M+ per department)

Aelira is the only solution that solves this problem.

Next Steps

Don't let your STEM departments face the deadline unprepared:

This week: Schedule a demo with Aelira
Next week: Pilot with one STEM department (upload 10-20 LaTeX files)
Week 3: Roll out to all STEM departments
Week 4+: Ongoing monitoring + faculty training

The crisis is real. But the solution exists.