Because LaTeX was designed as a typesetting program, PDF documents created using LaTeX do not include the document structure and tagging required for accessibility (e.g. by screen reading software) by default. It is possible to create accessible PDF documents using LaTeX but authors will need to use additional LaTeX packages and should be aware of accessibility standards. LaTeX users wishing to create accessible documents can try the methods described below but should still check their documents for accessibility.

The Accessibility package in LaTeX can be used to add the structure, tagging, and alt text that PDFs created with LaTeX lack. To use the package, you will need to load it into the preamble of your LaTeX document and choose package options. There are two option arguments accepted for the package:untagged or tagged,and flatstructure or highstructure. In order to create a more accessible PDF, you will want to choose [tagged, highstructure].

\usepackage[tagged, highstructure]{accessibility}

Once you have loaded in the accessibility package, you can use the \alt environment to add alt text to figures.

\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=10cm]{apollo17_earth.jpg}
    \alt{Image of the Earth from outer space}
    \caption{Image of the Earth from the Apollo 17 mission}
    \label{fig:earth}
\end{figure}

To make mathematical formulae accessible in you LaTeX document, you will need to load in the axessibility (not a typo!) package into the preamble.

\usepackage{axessibility}

In order to make your equations readable by the package, you will need to use the equation environment for all equations and can use the $$ inline mode.

\begin{equation}
    \frac{1 + \sqrt{5}}{2}
\end{equation}

Because of the limitations of LaTeX at this time, many experts recommend converting your LaTeX documents to HTML and MathML. This can be accomplished through a number of applications including LaTeXML and Pandoc.