Born accessible means we design to that standard from the very beginning, not as an afterthought.
At Alchemie, accessibility isn't something we add at the end, it's where we start. Our tools are built on the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and born accessible, designed so that every student can actively engage with chemistry learning.
"Tech for disabilities is the proving ground for the rest of the world."
What starts as innovation for students with disabilities often becomes better design for everyone. Curb cuts. Closed captions. Typewriters. Alchemie's AI-powered alternative text follows this tradition: created for screen reader users, but making complex chemistry more comprehensible for all students.
One example of what that looks like in practice: our Keyboard Accessible Control Panel (KACP), a form-based interface that lets students build molecular structures step by step, without a mouse or trackpad. The KACP is UDL principles in action, offering multiple means of interaction so students can engage with the same content through the pathway that works best for them. Watch Nicole, our accessibility consultant, build a Lewis structure of a water molecule using her screen reader and the KACP in our Lewis Structures tool.
All Alchemie tools work seamlessly with NVDA (Windows), VoiceOver (macOS, iOS), and JAWS (Windows), and are fully operable without a mouse or trackpad. Tested with blind and low-vision users throughout development.
Features:
Accessible design isn't only about screen readers and keyboards. For students who don't use screen readers, how information is presented and how much control they have over their own experience matters just as much. Alchemie's tools are designed to reduce cognitive load and support every student's ability to work independently.
Features:
Traditional alt text for chemistry diagrams has been inadequate. It's either too vague ("a molecule") or overwhelmingly detailed (paragraph-long descriptions that are impossible to process).
AI-generated, hierarchical descriptions that users can navigate like a table of contents. Screen reader users (SRU's) can choose their own path based on what they need to know.
Kasi (Finnish for "hand") is a tactile manipulatives system that brings hands-on learning to blind, low-vision, and sighted students alike. Magnetic pieces with braille labels allow students with visual impairments to work with the same materials as their peers — building chemical formulas, balancing equations, and creating mathematical models — side by side in an inclusive classroom.
ADA Title II will require schools and universities to meet accessibility standards for all digital materials used by students. Alchemie tools are designed to meet and exceed these requirements:
Piph Author automatically generates standardized alt text for chemical structures and reactions, so instructors can bring their existing course materials into compliance in minutes, not months.
Your input shapes our development priorities. If you have suggestions or encounter any accessibility barriers, please contact us:
Our accessibility features are grounded in research and developed through iterative testing with actual users.
Lewis Structures are a foundational concept in chemistry, but for students with blindness and low vision (BLV), accessing these visual representations has historically required accommodations that are difficult for faculty to provide, especially as learning moves to digital platforms. This research introduces a digital Lewis Structure explorer designed to be independently accessible for BLV students and screen reader users, featuring a keyboard-accessible control panel and dynamically generated alt text based on user input. Findings draw from a faculty survey and two usability studies, one with over 300 sighted college students and one with BLV adults who rely on alt text to access visual content.
As educational materials shift to dynamic digital content, students with visual impairments are increasingly at risk of being left behind, since few interactive tools are designed with accessibility in mind. The Kasi Learning System was developed to address this gap, combining tactile manipulatives and computer vision with audio-based augmented reality to create a multisensory experience of interactive digital images. A feasibility study with ten visually impaired high school students found that Kasi was an effective instructor for completing an active learning lesson, with students showing increased engagement and significant performance improvements over the course of the activity. The findings suggest Kasi has strong potential to give students greater independence in studying STEM diagrams, particularly for those who rely on auditory and tactile learning.
Organic chemistry mechanism maps rely on electron pushing formalism (EPF) to show how bonds break and form, but navigating these pathways is challenging for students and providing timely feedback is difficult for instructors. The Mechanisms App was developed to address this, allowing students to explore electron movement through a touch screen interface with real-time feedback. The app's backend generates a decision tree that tracks each user's moves, and a study examined how two different in-app modes can support a hypothesis-driven approach to learning EPF. The paper also covers classroom implementation across a variety of institutions and directions for future research.
