[Athen] Pandoc, EquatIO, Grind EQ, MathType

[Krista Greear]

Thanks for the interest Monica. I'm sharing my response to the ITACCESS and
ATHEN and Alt Media list for two reasons. *One*, to share with any other
interested parties. *Two*, to communicate the faculty perspective.
Sometimes I think we lose sight of their realities as we make
recommendations.

*The Prof's Words*
"I definitely should've mentioned, we have a deadline to complete the
book.  It's still about a year out, but I'm not sure we could both finish
the book and implement the LaTeX to docx in that time frame; it seems
pretty labor intensive.

I do really like the idea of making the tex files more readable.  Any
student using a reader and taking this particular linear algebra course
will eventually need to know LaTeX anyway.  Our code files are already
conveniently broken up according to the book sections.  I think we could
pretty easily clean up the code to make reading it easier and create a
quick "how-to-use-LaTeX" guide for students to include with the tex files."

*Krista's Comments*
Yes, we all would love all faculty everywhere to create accessible-born
STEM content without an accommodation request. However, is it reasonable to
ask them to do this in an independent, proactive manner, when there is so
much variety amongst a11y professional recommendations, individual student
situations, and types of content? They need to be subject matter experts,
researchers, teaching experts, technology experts, and now also
accessibility experts? All while teaching 3-5 courses often with no TA
support? And during a pandemic to boot?

This is how THEY see the situation, which I think is extremely valid. In
short, I can both be extremely protective of faculty member's time AND
still encourage them to proactively make STEM content accessible to
whatever extent they can when there is not an accommodation request.

On a less preachy note, the prof expressed appreciation for everyone's
input and "*a**ll of these ideas are going to be super helpful for faculty
here!*"

Thanks for the follow up question,
Krista


On Tue, Aug 31, 2021 at 3:34 PM Monica Olsson <molsson at sbctc.edu> wrote:


>

> Hi Krista,

>

> I am hoping for an update -- what did you and the professors end up doing?

> 🙂

>

>

>

> [image: Title: SBCTC logo - Description: Compass]

>

> *Monica M. Olsson (she/her/hers)*

>

> Policy Associate – Accessible IT Coordinator

>

> Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges

>

> *molsson at sbctc.edu <molsson at sbctc.edu>* • o: 360-704-3922 • c:

> 206-914-7187

>

> sbctc.edu <https://www.sbctc.edu/> • Twitter: @SBCTCWashington

> <https://twitter.com/SBCTCWashington> • Facebook: @WASBCTC

> <https://www.facebook.com/wasbctc/>

>


On Tue, Aug 24, 2021 at 6:05 PM Krista Greear <
krista at inclusiveinstructionaldesign.com> wrote:


> I met with a math professor who is authoring a Linear Algebra book and

> wants to make it available via OER. The book is already constructed in

> LaTeX (about 300 pages). The current plan is to distribute it as a PDF

> because it's visually appealing. But the professor is concerned about

> accessibility and is willing to change formats / do some reasonable amount

> of work to make it so.

>

> That said, they have already looked at Pandoc and found it to be too

> complicated. MathType would require a lot of time to re-create each

> equation/expression (or even just copying/pasting the LaTeX into MathType).

> EquatIO is a similar story. No comments on Grind EQ's potential.

>

> What are your best recommendations for this professor? What else am I

> missing?

>

> Krista

>

> --

> Krista Greear

> Accessibility and Inclusivity Crusader

> ATHEN Executive Council Vice President

> Access Technology Higher Education Network <https://athenpro.org/>

>



-- 
Krista Greear
Accessibility and Inclusivity Crusader
​ATHEN Executive Council Vice President​
Access Technology Higher Education Network <https://athenpro.org/>
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