Accessibility of e‑assessment

Accessibility of e‑assessment

Christian Lawson-Perfect
Newcastle University

Durham University Education and Pedagogy seminar, 2026-03-18

Abstract

I’ll give a brief introduction to the topic of accessibility, then talk about particular access considerations for mathematical e-assessment.

About me

Learning software developer in the digital learning unit of Newcastle University’ school of Maths, Stats and Physics.

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.

— Alistair Duggin, Accessibility in government

I’ll extend “disability” to “any circumstance that poses an obstacle”.

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.

The principle

Let the student show you what they can do.

Help them to feel comfortable while they do that.

Perfect is not possible.

Good is possible.

Some access needs

Sensory

Blind, Colourblind, Deaf, Visual sensitivity

Cognitive

Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Processing disorder, Memory loss, Autism, ADHD

Physical

Limited mobility, Tremors, Fatigue

Cultural

English as an additional language, Anxiety

Resources

Poor internet connection, Small screen, Limited keyboard, Slow computer, Limited time

These can be permanent, temporary or situational.

Why should you care?

Accessible teaching can:

How WCAG thinks about it

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are concerned with whether content is:

Perceivable: Can mathematical notation be read?

If you use MathJax, it provides lots of tools to make notation accessible.

More on this later

Perceivable: Horizontal scrolling is tricky

Break up long lines of maths.

Tables with lots of columns can overflow.

Perceivable: Minimise vertical scrolling

Does the student have to scroll up and down lots, to refer back to data?

If an input is linked to a diagram or some other output, can they be on screen at the same time?

Perceivable: Colour - try not to

Don’t use only colour to convey meaning.

Some colour combinations are invisible to colourblind people, e.g. red on black.

Perceivable: cope with customised display

The system should allow students to change the interface to suit their needs, e.g. colours, text, scaling.

Make sure your content is still accessible after this.

Perceivable: Data in a table

Include headers

Avoid horizontal scrolling

Perceivable: Text formatting

Be consistent with text formatting.

This includes mathematical notation.

Perceivable: Answer input

Can the student tell how their answer will be interpreted?

If they’re shown a live preview, make sure it is announced by screen readers.

Perceivable: References

Make sure referenced values from other sources such as textbooks are accessible.

Perceivable: Diagrams

Diagrams must have text descriptions.

If they contain text, why not put it in the prose too/instead?

Should be high enough resolution to be legible when zoomed in.

Label things and refer to them by that label.

Operable: Basic operability

Most e-assessment systems are delivered as web apps.

The usual concerns about operability of the interface apply: moving between questions; navigating between sections.

Operable: Entering answers

Can the student enter answers?

This requires both knowledge and ability.

Particularly challenging for mathematical expressions.

Operable: Numbers

Different conventions around number notation exist, across countries and disciplines.

Make sure the student knows which convention to use.

Operable: Syntax

Is the syntax well understood? Do they need guidance?

Operable: Special characters

Can their keyboard type the necessary characters?

People with e.g. Chinese keyboards have different sets of symbols available.

Limited mobility makes typing non-alphanumeric characters difficult.

Operable: Mobile keyboards

Mobile keyboards like to add spaces and punctuation unless told otherwise.

Operable: Precision

State the expected precision, precisely.

Operable: Timing

An extended or removed time limit is a really common adjustment. Consider just not having one!

Operable: Submission

Why limit the number of submissions?

Students might mistakes entering their answers (and might be more likely to make mistakes due to disability).

Anxiety might prevent students from entering an answer if it’s their only chance.

Operable: Allow operator error

Allow students to undo anything they’ve done.

But beware of save-scumming.

Operable: Invalid answers

Don’t let students submit an answer that is obviously wrong.

e.g. if expected answer only has free variable x, an answer using f is a sign that they’ve made a syntax error.

Operable: Anticipate mistakes

Try to give marks when they make input errors. e.g. sin2x - you know the student had the right thing in mind, so either prompt them to fix the input or give the marks.

Operable: Several sessions

Students have good reasons to complete homework in several sessions.

Make sure they can come back to an assessment and carry on where they were.

Understandable

This is the thing that most question authors can actually do something about.

Does the student understand what they need to do?

Remember to tell them!

Understandable: Prompt

The prompt should tell the student what to do, unambiguously. It’s important to make sure you give enough information. Applies to handwritten assignments too, but the computer can be more strict in what it accepts, so your instructions need to be more precise, accordingly.

Understandable: Feedback

Can the student make sense of feedback?

Write in full sentences.

Try not to show the student codes that they don’t recognise.

Feedback should explain how the score was calculated.

When referring back to things, use the same names, e.g. “gap 1” vs “coefficient of friction”.

Understandable: Reading level

WCAG has a “reading level” criterion.
But can we assume undergrad maths students have a higher reading level?
Think about dyslexia, EAL.

Students taking maths service courses have a lower maths reading level.
Adapt your language accordingly.

Understandable: Memory

Minimise what the student needs to keep in their head. They might forget what you’ve just told them, or misremember.

e.g. multiple statements differing only slightly are difficult to differentiate if you’re dyslexic.

Understandable: Terminology

Not everyone uses the same words for things, e.g. ‘brackets’ vs ‘parentheses’.

Make sure students agree with you on what words and symbols mean.

Understandable: Linked parts

If parts are linked, explain that.

If the answer from a previous part is used in this part for error-carried-forward, explain that.

Understandable: Error messages

Error messages should tell the student what was wrong, and ideally suggest a way of fixing it.

Understandable: Parts of expressions

Sometimes you only want the student to enter part of an expression, giving them a scaffold, necessarily introducing new symbols as placeholders for their answer. This can be confusing.

e.g. “write the integral as \(\int \frac{1}{f(x)} + \frac{x}{g(x)} \, dx\)”, so they must give \(f(x)\)and \(g(x)\).

Or “rearrange for \(y\)”.
Then the prompt is \(y = \) input.
Some students will start their answers with y = .

Mathematical notation

Mathematical notation is not consistent, unambiguous, or universal.

See WhyStartAt.xyz.

Ensure that students understand the notation you use.

Mathematical notation: Conventions

If the system forces a particular convention, either use that convention in your other teaching material, or explain it in the assignment.

e.g. (a,b) could mean:

Mathematical notation: Small details

Many students can not reliably notice the small differences in font styles that convey information in maths notation.

e.g. italic vs roman letters, Greek letters that look like Roman ones.

Diacritics convey meaning but are easily missed or confused.

e.g. prime too close to brackets.

Diagrams

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

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

Get an LLM to write alt text AT YOUR PERIL.

Interactive diagrams pose many challenges.

Interactive diagrams: Allow reset

Make it possible to reset interactive diagrams.

Interactive diagrams: Input devices

Interactive diagrams must be usable with only the keyboard, as well as with only a touch screen.

Show coordinates in text, and allow the student to type new coordinates.

Interactive diagrams: precision

Snap to grid points or objects when it makes sense to.

Consider the “grab radius” of objects.

Using other software

e.g. coding in Python or R

Explain how to get answers from the other software into the assessment. Make this as easy as you can.

Iterating

After an assessment has run, look at the answers students gave, for signs that:

Other aspects of accessibility

Work with Scarlett Spackman in 2024:

Accessible teaching for Maths, Stats and Physics

People working on maths accessibility

Thanks!

Numbas
numbas.org.uk
Email
msp.digital.learning@ncl.ac.uk

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!