In 2020, Deb Jaworski had a student in one of her math courses who used a screen reader. She wanted to make her course accessible but did not know where to start. So, she reached out to the Assistive Technology and Accessibility Centers (ATAC) for guidance.
Deborah Jaworski
Senior Lecturer in Mathematics
Digital Accessibility Liaison
IU Kokomo
Deb began working with Accessibility Analyst Destin Hubble, who taught her about JAWS and how screen readers work. "I had to imagine how an online page would sound when read to someone with no vision at all," she says. That realization made her rethink everything, from how she explained concepts to the way she laid out her course pages.
She soon found that students using screen readers experience math content piece by piece rather than all at once in Canvas. Then she discovered that Canvas already had built-in tools to make math accessible: MathJax, a free program for displaying math online, comes built into the equation editor in the Canvas rich content editor.
MathJax lets students explore equations, listening to small chunks at a time instead of hearing an entire equation read out loud at once.
If I just read off a long equation verbally, it would be too much for most of our brains to handle. With MathJax, students can open an accessibility menu for any equation and navigate through the math step by step.
In this issue
- How do you explain an equation to someone who can't see?
- A practical approach to improving accessibility over time
- ATAC insight: Planning advice for departments and faculty
- IU accessibility resource roadmap
- Ensuring IU scholarship is accessible to everyone
- ATAC insight: Choosing accessible textbooks
- How this benefits all students, not just those with accommodations
- ATAC insight: The true cost of free resources
- December 2025 and January 2026 happenings
- Catching up
Faculty Showcase & Making STEM Accessible
In a Teaching with Technology Faculty Showcase, Deb showed the tools she uses, discussing her struggles and her successes. Watch the full session recording here.Also be sure to register for the March 23rd webinar on Making STEM accessible: Visuals, Notation and Inclusive Design. Even if you can't join at the scheduled time, you'll get access to the recording.
"They can zoom in on equations and explore different parts on their own. A lot of faculty might actually have accessible math in Canvas already and not even realize they've done the right thing."
Once she understood how screen readers worked, Deb decided to rebuild her courses from scratch. She designed them with accessibility in mind from the very beginning, using clear headers and a logical page structure, so students navigating by sound could easily move through the material.
Get expert advice on ways to make math accessible. Read the ATAC insight that builds on this feature.
A few semesters later, another student came to her. "I'm losing my vision quickly. I don't have the money to go to the doctor, but I can't always see everything," they said. While they didn't have official documentation or an accommodation letter, Deb was able to help right away. She showed the student how to right-click equations to enlarge them and how to use other zoom features in her course.
For students who lack the resources for documentation, being able to get assistance right away makes a big difference. I'm grateful I can offer a course that works for them from day one.
These experiences changed how Deb thinks about teaching. The transcripts, the page structure, and the clear headers helped more students than she expected. "Sometimes we don't realize how many students we impact by making our courses accessible," she says. What started as support for one student became a way to design courses that just work better for everyone.
Accessibility also changed how she teaches. She's learned to think about how equations look on paper versus how they sound if you can't look at the paper. "As a teacher, I'm trying to give students good visual representations of what I'm teaching and very good auditory descriptions of what I'm teaching. To not use as many filler words, which can be confusing. It's challenging, but I'm grateful for my students."
Deb's advice to other instructors? "Beg, borrow, and steal," a motto she remembers from when she taught high school. Take all the information that is out there. Beg people to help. Borrow their ideas. Steal their best practices, giving credit of course.
"We're not doing this alone. We're doing this together," she says. "I'm happy to share what I've learned, and I'm so happy to draw from everything that everyone else has learned. That's what makes me a better teacher."
She encourages other math and STEM faculty to take advantage of professional development, reach out to ATAC for consultations, and connect with colleagues from their disciplines. Someone may have already figured out how to address the challenges you are facing.
Start small. Start with headings. Add alternative text. Use the equation editor in Canvas. Think about consistency in your course design. And remember that you're not just building for one student with documented needs. You're building for everyone.
About the author: Lesli Amaya
Lesli Amaya is an instructional technology consultant at the Center for Teaching and Learning. She supports IU Indianapolis and IU Fort Wayne instructors across disciplines in the integration of teaching and learning technologies. She partners with instructors to design strategies that align digital tools with course goals, enrich teaching, and encourage deeper student engagement. Her work is guided by evidence-based practices that foster active learning, broaden access, and create opportunities for all students to succeed.