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

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 2026 WCAG 2.1 deadline, 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 2026

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 2026 deadline: just weeks away

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:

1. Upload: Faculty uploads LaTeX files (.tex, .pdf) to Aelira
2. Parse: Aelira extracts LaTeX equations using regex + AST parsing
3. Convert: LaTeX → MathML (using pandoc + custom rules)
4. Enhance: Ollama AI generates natural language descriptions
5. Output: Accessible HTML with embedded MathML
6. 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 2026 deadline is just weeks away. 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:

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

The crisis is real. But the solution exists.

Contact us for a demo or learn more about LaTeX remediation.