Chirun: A tool for LaTex-to-HTML conversion
Laura Midgley
Newcastle University
Accessible HTML workshop, University of Edinburgh, 2026-06-08
Abstract
I'll talk about the context surrounding chirun's development and usage at Newcastle.
I'll show you how to convert a document using our online tool.
About me
Technical Officer in MSP at Newcastle University's digital learning unit.
Chirun
A tool to produce accessible course material from LaTeX or Markdown source.
Context
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Maths, Stats and Physics at Newcastle has ~900 undergraduate students and ~100 taught modules.
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The Digital Learning Unit consists of 6 people with a variety of roles.
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Lecturers typically prepare material in LaTeX.
History
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We introduced Chirun in 2017 to support an incoming student with long list of accessibility requirements.
-
Escalated encouragement for all modules to use it over the past few years
Aim: improve accessibility for all teaching, not just this student.
Chirun specific benefits
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A well defined route makes it easy for us to help
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Student's settings saved between chirun launches - they set it up once and it's 'right' for them forever
How to use Chirun
Either
- install from github and run on command line to convert files
or
- upload to the online tool
The online tool
Aside - github integration!
Github -> Chirun online tool
Very easy for public repos
Trickier for private - need a fine-grained personal access token as the username with specific permissions
Thanks!
- Chirun
- chirun.org.uk
- msp.digital.learning@ncl.ac.uk
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