STEM Accessibility

The design and delivery of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education in ways that are accessible to students with disabilities. STEM accessibility is a particularly acute challenge for students with vision impairments, as STEM subjects heavily rely on visual representations including diagrams, graphs, chemical structures, mathematical equations, and laboratory observations. Teachers with vision impairments report struggling to teach STEM concepts without tactile diagrams or accessible visual aids, often depending on sighted colleagues for explanations. Solutions include tactile graphics, 3D-printed models, audio descriptions, and increasingly, generative AI tools that can convert visual content into non-visual formats.