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Note: This is a hypothetical scenario illustrating how accessibility tools could benefit blind researchers and educators in STEM fields.
A scenario exploring how terminal-based workflows and CLI tools could support blind researchers in making their work accessible to students worldwide.
Astrophysics
Terminal-based workflow
Students benefit
In this scenario, the researcher (Dr. [Name]) was initially refused admission to university because administrators believed physics was "impossible" for blind students, then went on to finish with the highest grades in their year.
Illustrative: "I showed them that not only can a blind person study physics, they can be good at it. I got the best grade in my year."
Illustrative composite (not a real quote)
In this scenario, the researcher's workflow is entirely terminal-based:
In this scenario, the researcher uses spacecraft data to calculate magnetic fields in the sun's atmosphere, solving partial differential equations with numerical methods, all done via terminal with minimal visual assistance.
Illustrative: "Geometry is super important. I love geometry and was always the best in my class."
In this scenario, the biggest accessibility barrier isn't LaTeX source code (which the researcher writes fluently). It's convincing colleagues to make presentations accessible.
Illustrative: "Believe it or not, the hardest part is convincing people to make accessible presentations. Just describing the slide is fine (I'm not asking for anything unreasonable), but even that can be difficult to get."
Illustrative composite (not a real quote)
At conferences and lectures, speakers show slides with complex equations, diagrams, and data visualizations, but often never describe them verbally. For blind attendees, the content can be completely inaccessible.
While the researcher can write LaTeX perfectly (it's plain text), blind students can't read the PDFs generated from that research.
LaTeX source is accessible. The researcher writes equations in plain text using Emacs.
PDF output is inaccessible. Screen readers can't parse equations.
When submitting papers with figure alt text, journals promised it would appear on the web version. It never did. Follow-up emails went unanswered.
This is a systemic problem across academic publishing.
In this scenario, the researcher could use Aelira's CLI tool (command-line interface) to convert LaTeX documents to accessible formats, fitting into a terminal-based workflow.
# Convert LaTeX paper to accessible HTML
$ aelira latex-to-mathml ./paper.tex
# Processing: 127 equations found...
# Converting to MathML with ARIA labels...
# Done: output/paper-accessible.html (98/100 accessibility score)
Why this works:
Equations converted to MathML
Blind students benefit
Time saved on accessibility
In this scenario, the researcher could convert an entire semester of astrophysics lectures (200+ pages of LaTeX notes, 50 presentations) to accessible formats using Aelira's CLI tool.
Could be the first fully accessible advanced astrophysics course for blind students at their university
In this scenario, the researcher could share an Aelira-based workflow with a peer community of other blind researchers.
Illustrative: "As blind people, we can't afford to be less productive in the things we can control. A terminal-based workflow plus the Aelira CLI could give the same productivity as sighted researchers."
CLI-first design means blind researchers can work entirely from the terminal without losing productivity.
Exploring how terminal-based accessibility workflows could benefit researchers who rely on screen readers.
Prepare for the April 2027 WCAG 2.1 deadline with accessible STEM education. Terminal-based CLI tools + LaTeX MathML conversion.