Accessibility Statement

The Texas A&M Mathematics Department is committed to making this open educational resource (OER) as accessible and usable as possible. While we strive to meet accessibility best practices, we recognize that this is a continual process. If you encounter any issues not listed below, please notify the department – we are committed to working with the appropriate university offices to address concerns and improve the accessibility of this resource.

Accessibility Journey

In Spring 2023, the Associate Head of the Mathematics Department, Dr. Alan Demlow, encouraged the development of an OER and ancillary materials for Math 150: Functions, Trigonometry, and Linear Systems. While the department already had strong OER texts for two of its service courses, this project aimed to extend those benefits to another group of students.

A committee of five APT faculty was formed. Two faculty members led the work on the textbook, starting with a PreCalculus OER by Stitz and Zeager and adapting it to align with Math 150 course objectives and the content needed for follow-up courses. The adapted text was retyped in LaTeX, including coding approximately 1,200 images. The completed PDF version was first used in Spring 2024.

In May 2024, in light of upcoming federal changes to accessibility requirements for digital content in higher education,  we began converting the textbook into Pressbooks. Over the next three months, the LaTeX content was migrated, QuickLaTeX was used to render math inside examples, and all images outside examples were converted into PNG files with alt text. The Pressbooks version was launched for student use during the 2024-2025 academic year.

By Spring 2025, we learned that QuickLaTeX did not meet accessibility expectations. During May and June 2025, the entire book, comprising 45 sections, was revised again. QuickLaTeX was replaced with MathJax for better accessibility, answers were added to all homework questions, and remaining coded images were converted to PNG files with descriptive alt text. Heading styles, hyperlink formatting, and color contrast were also adjusted to align with WCAG 2.2 standards.

Current Status

• All math content uses MathJax for improved accessibility.
• All images are provided in PNG format with alt text tailored to the surrounding context. Some descriptions may be longer than others to fully convey the meaning and relevance of the image.
• Homework answers are included for all 45 sections.
• Headings, color contrast, and hyperlinks have been revised to meet WCAG 2.2 AA guidelines.

This work continues to evolve, and we welcome feedback that can help us make it even more accessible and effective for all learners. Thank you!

Note on Previous Edition