Desmos Studio is a public benefit corporation with a goal of helping everyone learn math, love math, and grow with math. Because of this, we prioritize equity and accessibility at every level of our work.
Watch the video for a quick overview of our accessibility features, and read on to learn more. For additional details and conformance reports, visit our Accessibility page.
Keyboard Navigation
You can use a keyboard to do almost everything you can do using a mouse or trackpad in our math tools.
When you open any Desmos calculator, you start focused in the expression list where you can begin typing math expressions. You can reorder the expression list by pressing Alt+Shift+M (Windows) or Cmd+Shift+M (Mac).
Open the Keyboard Shortcuts menu in the Graphing Calculator, Geometry Tool, 3D Graphing Calculator, and Notebook at any time by pressing Ctrl+Forward Slash (/). Or, explore our Shortcuts page.
Keyboard Navigation Example in Geometry
The Geometry Tool offers a point-and-click interface that allows you to create geometric objects on the graph paper using the toolbar. You can access and place all these tools using a keyboard. Let’s walk through how to create a circle with a keyboard.
A circle is defined by a center point and a radius point. To place a circle on the graph paper using the circle tool, start by either tabbing to the toolbar or pressing Ctrl+Alt+M (Windows) or Ctrl+Cmd+M (Mac) to focus the toolbar.
Once you’ve focused the toolbar, use the right arrow key to move to the Circle tool. Pressing Enter to select this tool will then focus the graph paper and show a point, which will be the center of your circle. You can move the point with arrow keys and press Enter when it’s exactly where you want it. Next, use the arrow keys to move the second point away from the center before pressing Enter to drop a second point to define the radius of your circle, which will cause the tool to draw the circle on your screen.
To get out of the circle tool, press Esc or use the keyboard shortcut 1 to return to the Select tool.
If you want to place the center at a certain point in the coordinate plane, first select Geometry Settings and then Grid so that the points will snap to the grid. You can reach the menu with Ctrl+Alt+G (Windows) or Ctrl+Cmd+G (Mac), tab to the Grid toggle, and press Space to show the grid.
Text-to-Speech
When used with a screen reader, the calculators’ equation editor reads aloud expressions knowing the difference between reading “cosine” instead of “cos,” “x squared” instead of “x superscript 2,” “one half” instead of “1 slash 2”, and more.
You can also write custom descriptions for interactive objects (such as clickable objects, draggable points, geometric shapes, and more) from the Options menu .
For help configuring your screen reader on a PC, Mac, Chromebook, iPhone, or iPad, visit the Screen Reader section of the Accessibility page.
Audio Trace
Audio trace is a powerful accessibility feature that allows users to explore a single equation or an entire system of equations through sound.
When focused in an expression line, press Alt+T (Windows) or Option+T (Mac) to activate audio trace, and type H to hear the graph.
Many commands are available both from the computer keyboard and via the on-screen keypad, including choices to adjust the graph’s volume and playback speed and to move between points, points of interest, and curves. Audio trace can also describe the point, curve, and axes you’re investigating.
Listen to the video to hear \(f(x)=-2x+4\) audio traced from left to right. Notice how an overtone plays when moving from negative to positive \(x\) values (the independent variable) and static occurs when moving from positive to negative \(y\) values (the dependent variable). The pops occur when \(f(x)\) intersects with \(g(x)=x^2+1\).
Open the graph here and try listening to g(x).
Accessibility Settings in the Graph Settings Menu
Enlarge the Display
All of our math tools, except for the 3D Calculator, include a setting to enlarge the display, which makes text and graphed curves larger and bolder.
Access this setting by selecting Graph Settings . Then, toggle between display sizes.
Turn on Reverse Contrast
In the Graphing, Geometry, Scientific, Matrix, and Four-Function Calculators, you can turn on reverse contrast mode, which inverts the colors of the tool. In 3D, reverse contrast inverts the colors of the background, expression list, and buttons while maintaining the color of points, lines, and surfaces.
Use Braille Mode
The Settings menu also contains options for configuring Desmos to work with refreshable Braille displays. We support the Nemeth and UEB math codes in all of our math tools except the Matrix calculator.
Check out our collection of Braille examples.
Learn More
Please write in with any questions or feedback to support@desmos.com or accessibility@desmos.com