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!
Accessibility of mathematical material
Christian Lawson-Perfect
Newcastle University
LMS Good Practice Scheme Workshop: Supporting Staff and Students with Disabilities, 2026-06-12
There is a recording of this talk on YouTube.
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.
What does 'accessibility' mean?
“Accessibility means that people can do what they need to do in a similar amount of time and effort as someone that does not have a disability. It means that people are empowered, can be independent, and will not be frustrated by something that is poorly designed or implemented.”
Our obligations under law
The Equality Act 2010 and PSBAR 2018 requires all public sector organisations to provide online content that meets the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.
accessibility.education.gov.uk and JISC have helpful pages.
In short:
- You’ve got to do it.
- Unless it would impose a disproportionate burden.
- But that doesn’t mean what you think it means.
- Just do it.
You use handwritten notes because
- It’s easy to write.
- Diagrams are easy.
- LaTeX 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:
But hard to write!
<math displaystyle="true">
<mrow>
<mo>∫</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.
| Year | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
| Accessible modules | 50% | 64% | 76% |
(didn’t check in 2025/6)
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.
Accessible conferences and events
Work with Elaine Lopez, Jennifer Deane and Emily David.
Guidance and checklist for event organisers.
People working on maths accessibility
Thanks!
- Chirun
- chirun.org.uk
- msp.digital.learning@ncl.ac.uk