Purpose

The purpose of this method is to attempt to automatically transform LaTeX learning materials into a variety of more accessible formats for disabled students. You may find that other students prefer or make use of some of the formats so please consider making all formats available to all students. For instance, some formats may be useful to students using devices with small screens.

This is a work in progress and is likely to be unstable. Please note that, in general, it is not possible to convert LaTeX to accessible formats. This method will only work with relatively simple documents. It is intended to be used on lecture notes and problem sheets written by authors who are not very adventurous in their use of LaTeX! It is not intended for use with complex LaTeX documents such as books or articles for publication. Help and support is available from mash-access@bath.ac.uk but only if you are trying to create alternative formats for student use at the University of Bath.

The alternative formats

The method will compile a standard format which should be basically the same as your usual PDF output. In addition it will attempt to create clear print PDF, large print PDF, an accessible web format and an accessible word format. The large print and word formats are currently considered experimental and are more likely to fail than the others.

Accessible web and word formats

These formats can be used by students who need to adapt resources or to use assistive technology to enable them to access resources. Depending on the requirements of the student and the assistive technology they have they may require one or the other. These formats are not interchangeable.

If you would like to know more about how these formats can be used please email mash-access@bath.ac.uk

Instructions

Setup

This method has many dependencies and currently only works on the command line, in Linux and with the correct setup. We do not have the resources to help people set up their own machines to run the method so we have produced a docker build in which the tool will definitely run.

Getting the tool

To get a copy of the tool which can also be updated:

1. Be able to run docker builds and be using either Windows 10 or Linux. You should probably ask someone, or the internet for help with that if you have no idea what this means. If you are based at the University of Bath then please email ma-largeprintnotes@bath.ac.uk to ask for help.

2. Change directory into the directory which contains the LaTeX you wish to process (and any files needed by that document). In Linux use the following command to run the build:

docker run -it -v $(pwd):/home/mathaltuser/$(whoami) bathmash/mathaltnotes

In Windows use the following command to run the build:

docker run -it -v ${PWD}:/home/mathaltuser/${env:username} bathmash/mathaltnotes bash

3. Change director to MathAltNotes:

cd MathAltNotes

You can now use the instructions below.

Collect a copy of your files

This method of creating alternative formats rewrites the LaTeX. It works on a copy of your files to protect your original. Even so we still recommend that you have your originals backed up elsewhere. To collect your files run the script ./getMyLaTeX on the main LaTeX file in your project.

./getMyLaTeX ../yourusername/filename.tex

Outcome

This will find all the files needed and put them in a timestamped directory. That is, if I ran the above command at 11:51 on 29th January 2018 it could create the folder filename-180129-1151

Conditional inclusions in your document

Please be aware that only files used by the current setup will be collected. For instance, if you have a Beamer document which can includes an image in the article output but not the slides then the image file will only be collected by the script if the document is currently set to compile the article format.

Compiling the alternative formats

Once you have collected the files you can make all the formats with for instance:

./quickMake filename-180129-1151

Or, if this is a Beamer presentation:

./quickBeamerMake filename-180129-1151

Once this has finished you will find the outputs in the folder filename-180129-1151/built

You can view outputs by opening them on your computer in the usual way. Please note that the Word documents may only work in Word 365. In particular many images will only work in this format.

If this fails

If this fails it is because one or more of the formats failed.

If only the web and word format failed you can try:

./quickSloppyMake filename-180129-1151

but please read the warnings.

You can also compile formats individually. Move into your time-stamped directory:

cd filename-180129-1151

then try any of these:

make standard name=filename

make clear name=filename

make large name=filename

make web name=filename

make word name=filename

For Beamer slides:

make standard name=filename

make clearbart name=filename

make largebart name=filename

make web name=filename

make word name=filename

For sloppy web and word, as a last resort (and please contact us for help too) try:

make websloppy name=filename

make wordsloppy name=filename

Reporting issues and getting help

This is a work in progress and is unstable! Regardless of how good we get it will never be possible for us to process general LaTeX. Before contacting us try to minimise your use of packages and fonts.

If you have problems email mash-access@bath.ac.uk to report them. We may eventually solve the problem, if it is possible to solve it, but make no promises!

Providing files to students

We recommend providing the alternative formats to all students. Whether you provide these prior to class depends on the resource and your teaching practice. Resources should be provided to disabled students prior to class.