Accessibility of mathematical material

Christian Lawson-Perfect
Newcastle University

University of Exeter mathematical pedagogy seminar, 2025-10-23

Abstract

I'll give a brief introduction to the topic of accessibility, then talk about particular access considerations for mathematical material.

I'll talk about how we've improved accessibility at Newcastle through development of the open-source tool Chirun, cultural change, and institutional support.

About me

Learning software developer in MSP at Newcastle University's digital learning unit.

Developer of Numbas and Chirun.

Disabled in a few ways.

Take a moment to read this

Read this, then

What does 'accessibility' mean?

Our obligations under law

Some access needs

Assistive technology

You use handwritten notes because

• It's easy to write.
• Diagrams are easy.
• L^aT_eX is hard and time-consuming.

Students want notes in other formats because

Low or no vision

Need more contrast, bigger text, or read aloud.

Can’t hold paper

Need material displayed on a screen or read aloud.

Dyslexia

Need different colours, different font, structure.

Poor memory or executive function

Need more structure.

Reasons you haven’t thought of.

Why should you care?

Accessible teaching can:

• Allow students to access teaching!
• Make students feel welcome.
• Reduce mental load.
• Be the difference between staying on the course and dropping out.

Handwritten notes are inaccessible to many people

• Can't be resized or re-set.
• Hard to change colours.
• AI is not reliable.
• No structural metadata.
• Your handwriting style might be hard to read, like mine.

PDFs are a bit better

• Text is searchable (sometimes).
• Can be zoomed in but not re-set.
• Can’t change colours or fonts.
• No or little structural metadata.

PDF is fundamentally designed for print media.

Accessible maths on the web

• How do you display mathematical notation?
• How do you write mathematical notation?
• What about diagrams?

MathML

Now supported by all browsers: $\int x^2\mathrm{d}x=\frac{1}{3}{x}^3+C$

But hard to write!

<math display="block">
  <mrow>
    <mo>&int;</mo>
    <msup>
      <mi>x</mi>
      <mn>2</mn>
    </msup>
    <mstyle scriptlevel="0">
      <mspace width="0.167em"></mspace>
    </mstyle>
    <mrow>
      <mrow>
        <mi mathvariant="normal">d</mi>
      </mrow>
      <mi>x</mi>
    </mrow>
  </mrow>
  <mo>=</mo>
  <mrow>
    <mrow>
      <mfrac>
        <mn>1</mn>
        <mn>3</mn>
      </mfrac>
      <mo>⁢</mo>
      <msup>
        <mi>x</mi>
        <mn>3</mn>
      </msup>
    </mrow>
    <mo>+</mo>
    <mi>C</mi>
  </mrow>
</math>

MathJax

Typesets LaTeX.

\int x^2 \, \mathrm{d} x = \frac{1}{3} x^3 + C

\[ \int x^2 \, \mathrm{d} x = \frac{1}{3} x^3 + C \]

Adds accessibility information.

Diagrams

There isn't a good automatic solution for describing diagrams.

Write short alt text, and a longer description of the important information elsewhere.

Chirun

A tool to produce accessible course material from LaTeX or Markdown source.

Context

• Maths, Stats and Physics at Newcastle has ~900 undergraduate students and ~100 taught modules.

• The Digital Learning Unit is 6 part-time people; I'm a learning software developer.

• Lecturers typically prepare material in LaTeX.

The beginning

• We introduced Chirun in 2017 to support an incoming student with long list of accessibility requirements.

• Paid students to type up handwritten notes in LaTeX

Aim: improve accessibility for all teaching, not just this student.

The carrot 🥕

• I presented at all-staff meetings.

• We offered support to anyone who wanted it: we'd take their material and make it accessible.

(some) Lecturers take accessibility very seriously

• A handful of lecturers understood the brief and produced accessible material on their own. Thanks!

• Some used their own tools, such as Bookdown.

(some) Lecturers don't take accessibility seriously

After two years, take-up was very low: less than 25% of modules were acceptable.

Common complaints:

• I don't know what to do.
• Why should I go to all that effort for one student?
• I'm overworked and don't have time to do this.
• Is this student even any good?

The stick 🧹

• Using my Canvas admin role, I audited every module twice a semester.

• I passed findings on to the director of education and directors of discipline.

This mainly worked!

Now, three quarters of modules have all material available in accessible formats.

Physicists use PowerPoint and I can only offer them advice. 🤷🏻

Accessibility tips

• When lecturing, don’t speak to the board.
• Don’t use colour as the sole means of conveying information.
• Write alt text or captions for all images.
• Simpler structure is better.
• Describe what you’re talking about.
• Plan for accessibility first.
• Ask for help.

Other aspects of accessibility

Work with Scarlett Spackman in 2024:

Accessible teaching for Maths, Stats and Physics

• Upload course material in advance.
• Make recordings of lectures.
• Communicate clearly.

People working on maths accessibility

• JISC accessible maths working group - please join!
• Volker Sorge
• Peter Krautzberger
• Emma Cliffe

🎅 Christmas bonus ☃️

What Can Mathematicians Do? - 10 talks by disabled mathematicians, Christmas 2022.

Thanks!

Chirun

chirun.org.uk

Email

msp.digital.learning@ncl.ac.uk

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This is the screen where I configure the display to suit the audience. This text is here so I can see what a long line of text will look like!