UC Riverside is committed to providing an inclusive digital environment. When creating course materials involving complex equations, formulas, and notations, choosing the right tool is essential for ensuring content is screen-reader accessible.

Below is a comparison of common tools used to create and convert accessible mathematical content.

Math Kit is a specialized tool designed primarily for users working within the Google ecosystem to create mathematical notation.

Cost/Pricing: 

Free

Pros:

• Includes built-in modules that teach users how to effectively utilize the tool.
• Features intuitive steps and keyboard shortcuts to streamline the design process.

Cons:

• Platform restricted: Can only be utilized on Google Slides.
• The symbol library is currently very limited, offering only the most basic functions and symbols.

MathPix is a powerful OCR (Optical Character Recognition) tool that specializes in converting images of math into digital, accessible formats like LaTeX and MathML.

Cost/Pricing:

• Low pricing;
• Offers a free trial (includes 20 "snips" and 20 PDF page conversions).

Pros:

• Advanced OCR: Can convert handwritten notes or "scribbles" from the app into MathML and LaTeX with a simple screenshot.
• Versatility: Can convert and OCR images into PDF versions or transform typing into LaTeX code.
• Ease of Use: Covers a wide range of functions and symbols.

Cons:

• Accuracy Issues: OCR can become inaccurate when presented with too much information or dense pages.
• Manual Effort: It often exports an image rather than live text, meaning Alt-Text is still required for full compliance.

Overleaf serves as the primary authoring environment for creating accessible course materials from the ground up. Its most critical update for 2026 is the integration of TeX Live 2025, which enables the generation of Tagged PDFs (PDF/UA). In the context of California's new law, a "tagged" document is mandatory because it provides the underlying structure—headings, list hierarchies, and table reading orders—that screen readers require to navigate content. Usage revolves around the \DocumentMetadata command, which must be placed at the very top of a LaTeX file to activate the automated tagging features. By using Overleaf, instructors can ensure that complex math is rendered as searchable text or MathML rather than inaccessible images, directly satisfying WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards for STEM content.

Features:

1. Cloud based- Requires no installation
2. Auto-Save- Saves a history of your work
3. Project Sharing- Allows for multiple people to work on the same project
4. Template Library - Access to a wide range of templates to format course material
5. Equations- Turn math equations readable for screen readers

Pricing and Institutional Access:

Please visit the Overleaf License Website for more information. This link includes step by step instructions along with further instructions over how to utilize this tool. As well as further resources regarding templates, creating an account and even FAQ's.

Pros:

• High Readability: The results of LaTeX conversions are high quality and easily read by screen readers such as NVDA.
• Professional Standard: Utilized and recognized by major organizations.
• Extensive Toolkit: Offers a wide range of tools for complex document conversion.

Cons:

• Dependency: Requires the use of Overleaf (a separate free online text editor) to function.
• Formatting Errors: Can struggle with the positioning of non-mathematical objects, such as names and images, from the original PDF.
• Usage Limits: Pricing structures provide limited credits per month.

Underleaf is an AI-powered assistant designed to handle the "remediation" of legacy materials—old PDFs, scanned hand-outs, or handwritten notes—that were created before accessibility laws were modernized. Its primary usage is as a conversion bridge: it uses high-precision OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to transform "flat" images of equations and tables into clean LaTeX code that can be pasted directly into Overleaf. This solves the massive administrative hurdle of manually re-typing thousands of pages of existing course content. Because it is specifically tuned for academic and scientific notation, it preserves the semantic meaning of complex formulas, making them "remediated" and ready for the accessible tagging process in Overleaf.

Features

1. HTR(Hand Written Text Recognition) - Converts any PDF and Excel to LaTeX
2. Mathematical OCR - Converts handwritten equations(images) to LaTeX code
3. Automated Structure Tagging - Identifies headings, tables, list,  structures compliable to WCAG 2.1 AA.
4. Overleaf compatible - This tool writes it LaTeX code through overleaf

Pricing and Institutional Access

Professional accounts to faculty. Underleaf offers a Free Tier with roughly 200 credits per month for basic conversions; an Essentials Plan ($4.99/month) for higher volume; and a Pro Plan ($9.99/month) which allows for multi-page PDF batch processing and direct Overleaf integration. For more information please visit the Underleaf Website and if you would like to look at Underleaf Tools.

Pros

• Remediation Efficiency: It excels at "Image-to-LaTeX" conversion. If you have old PDFs or photos of whiteboards that are currently unreadable by screen readers, Underleaf can instantly convert them into clean LaTeX code.
• Low Barrier to Entry: You don't need to be a LaTeX expert. You can describe an equation in "plain English" (e.g., "fraction with x squared plus 5 on top and 2 on bottom"), and it will generate the accessible code for you.
• Workflow Integration: It integrates directly with Overleaf, which is a standard for many UCR faculty and researchers. This allows you to fix accessibility issues within your existing writing environment.
• MathML Support: By converting math into LaTeX, it provides the foundation for generating MathML (the gold standard for web accessibility). Modern browsers and screen readers (like NVDA or JAWS) can "read" math far more accurately when it originates from this code.
• Error Detection: It can identify and fix LaTeX syntax errors that might otherwise cause a screen reader to fail or "choke" on an equation.

Cons

• "Middleman" Step: Underleaf produces LaTeX code, but to make a final document (like a PDF) truly accessible, you still need to ensure you are using the correct LaTeX packages (like tagpdf or axessibility) during compilation. It is an assistant, not a "one-click" accessibility validator.
• Credit-Based Limits: Unlike some open-source tools mentioned on university pages, Underleaf uses a credit system. For high-volume remediation (e.g., an entire textbook of math), a free user may hit limits quickly.
• Workflow Integration: It integrates directly with Overleaf, which is a standard for many UCR faculty and researchers. This allows you to fix accessibility issues within your existing writing environment.
• Privacy/Security: Because it is an AI-powered tool that processes your inputs in the cloud, users handling sensitive or proprietary research data must ensure their usage complies with university data privacy policies.
• Manual Verification Still Required: While the AI is highly accurate, it can occasionally misinterpret complex subscripts or ambiguous handwriting. For accessibility compliance, the instructor must still manually verify that the output matches the intended meaning.