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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
Dr. [Name] was initially refused admission to university because administrators believed physics was "impossible" for blind students. He proved them wrong—finishing with the highest grades in his year.
"I showed them that not only a blind person can study physics but can be good at it (I got the best grade in my year)."
— Dr. [Name], r/accessibility
His workflow is entirely terminal-based:
Used spacecraft data to calculate magnetic fields in the sun's atmosphere. Required solving partial differential equations using numerical methods—all done via terminal with minimal visual assistance.
"Geometry is super important! I love geometry and was always the best in my class."
The biggest accessibility barrier wasn't LaTeX source code (which he writes fluently). It was convincing colleagues to make presentations accessible.
"Believe it or not the most difficult was to convince people to make accessible presentations. Just describing is fine I do not ask for crazy things. But even this is difficult to find…"
— Dr. [Name], r/accessibility
At conferences and lectures, speakers showed slides with complex equations, diagrams, and data visualizations—but never described them verbally. For blind attendees, the content was completely inaccessible.
While Dr. [Name] could write LaTeX perfectly (it's plain text), blind students couldn't read the PDFs he generated from his research.
LaTeX source is accessible. He 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.
Dr. [Name] uses Aelira's CLI tool (command-line interface) to convert LaTeX documents to accessible formats—fitting perfectly into his 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
Dr. [Name] converted an entire semester of astrophysics lectures (200+ pages of LaTeX notes, 50 presentations) to accessible formats using Aelira's CLI tool.
First fully accessible advanced astrophysics course for blind students at his university
Dr. [Name] created a LinkedIn group "Blind and Low Vision in STEM" to share his Aelira-based workflow with other blind researchers.
"As blind people we cannot afford to be less productive in the things we can control. Terminal-based workflows + Aelira CLI give me 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.
Join 500+ universities using Aelira for accessible STEM education. Terminal-based CLI tools + LaTeX MathML conversion.