Navigating STEM as a Blind PhD Student

Lately, I’ve been facing the reality of what it means to be a blind PhD student in STEM. It’s tough—books are inaccessible, technologies are outdated, and there’s not much support out there. All of this adds up to a massive cognitive overload. But over time, I’ve come up with some strategies to handle these challenges. Since I think they could help other blind or low-vision folks, I’ve decided to share them. Today, I want to talk about how I make a document accessible, specifically an ordinary differential equations (ODE) textbook.

The Accessibility Challenge

My first step was to ask the university’s disability services for the textbook in Braille. But when I saw how huge the Braille version was, I knew I had to try something else. That’s when I switched to XML.

Why XML?
In my experience, XML files work better with screen readers like JAWS and NVDA in Word compared to regular DOCX files. I’d used this method before, and it was usually quicker and smoother. This time, though, I hit a major roadblock: matrices.

JAWS and NVDA just don’t handle matrices well. Navigating through each one takes forever. To work around this, I converted the XML to DOCX using Word’s built-in option. The conversion went fine, but the matrix issue stuck around.

On top of that, my screen readers started lagging badly when I tried to read the document. Maybe it was the sheer number of matrices, or maybe it’s just how screen readers handle these files—but either way, it made reading the textbook almost impossible.

Turning to Braille

For a while, my HIMS-6 Braille display saved the day. Plugging it into my computer made reading more manageable, though matrices were still a pain. I had to interact with each one individually, which, for an ODE textbook, is no small task.

Next, I tried converting the file with Duxbury and embossing it in Braille. Unfortunately, this was even more frustrating. Duxbury struggled with some math symbols and messed up the formatting of the matrices.

Then things got worse—my Braille display started acting up, repeatedly flashing “top panel locked” and “unlocked.” After talking to HIMS support, I found out I’d have to send it in for repairs.

Back to the Drawing Board

With my Braille display out of commission, I was left with a document my screen readers couldn’t handle, Duxbury struggling with conversions, and no real backup plan. So, I went back to my old process for making PDFs accessible:

Get the PDF: Either download it or scan a physical copy at the highest resolution possible.
Run it Through OCR: Convert the PDF into a more accessible format like XML, DOCX, TeX, or HTML. My go-to OCR tools are:
Check the Output: If the document is readable in one of these formats, great. If not, run it through Duxbury and either emboss it or use a Braille display.

The Problems

OCR Isn’t Perfect: Especially with math-heavy content, OCR tools can’t always be trusted to get everything right.
Duxbury’s Limitations: While it’s the best Braille conversion software out there, it struggles with more complex math symbols and often loses the spatial organization of formulas.
Time and Cost: This process takes forever, and the software and devices involved aren’t cheap. Even after all that effort, it doesn’t always work.

The only way I can guarantee accuracy is by asking a sighted colleague to compare the original document with the converted one. But relying on others isn’t ideal and highlights the limits of today’s accessibility tools.

The Bigger Picture

All of this could be avoided if publishers made their digital books fully accessible to screen readers. I’d gladly pay for a properly formatted, accessible version of the textbook. Unfortunately, that’s just not an option right now.

This problem is even worse for PhD students. If a book or paper is assigned for a class, the university has to provide an accessible version. But if you need it for your research or thesis, it doesn’t count as class material. So, you’re stuck in this frustrating PhD limbo.

What’s Next?