Status of this work
This is an archived site of work undertaken in 2011/2012. Mathematics accessibility is a fast moving area and there have been substantial advances in the last decade. As such, while this site is retained for background, it is not recommended that the methods described below be followed directly in the modern era. Since this project further work has occurred with the Mathematics Resources Centre at the University of Bath. Links to some of this work are given below and it is recommended that the modern reader refer to these.
From time to time further information may be provided at the Mathematics Resources Centre Mathematics Accessibility project page.
Contents below this statement
- Most recent and useful
- For those at Bath
- Older slides from talks and workshops
- Publications
- Archived site as originally presented
Most recent and useful
The most recent talk attempts to give a round up of where we are:
The most recent descendents of the work archived at this site are:
- ClavertonDown: This is built on top of Bookdown, RMarkdown, KnitR and Pandoc and can be used by the average maths lecturer. The aim is to create a method aimed at lecturers creating alternative formats, rather than writers writing books. We aim for it to be usable in both pure and applied mathematical settings.
- MathAltNotes: This evolved directly from this archived work but was never meant for release outside the team who evolved it. This is what happens when practitioners replace themselves, as far as possible, with a collection of open source software and scripts! We still use this for 'heavy-duty' transformations of LaTeX into alternative formats but it really needs to be driven by those who wrote it.
For those at Bath
If you are at Bath then you can get help and support from a variety of places:
Older slides from talks and workshops
- Accessible maths at university: From retrofitting to inclusive design? MathsAccess4All 2019. Online at: https://people.bath.ac.uk/cspehj/slides/MathsUniRetroToInc
- Using Word to write an accessible mathematical document, CETL-MSOR 2019. Online at: https://stem-enable.github.io/WordWorkshop/
- Using R as a basis for writing an accessible mathematical document, CETL-MSOR 2019. Online at: https://stem-enable.github.io/RMarkdownWorkshop/
- Accessible maths: From retrofitting to inclusive design?, presented to Southampton Mathematics Department, 2019. Online at: https://people.bath.ac.uk/cspehj/slides/AccessibleMathsRetroToInc/
- Accessibility of maths on the web, E-Assessment in Mathematical Sciences (EAMS), 2018. Online at: https://people.bath.ac.uk/cspehj/slides/MathsOnTheWeb/
- Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLDs) and Maths, expanded and presented to Access West of England, 2017. Online at: https://people.bath.ac.uk/cspehj/slides/SpLDMathsUWE/
- SpLDs and Maths Support: Bridging the Gap, Scottish Maths Support Network meeting 2017. Online at: https://people.bath.ac.uk/cspehj/slides/SpLDMathsABD/
- Studying Mathematics: Barriers and reasonable adjustments, presented to Cardiff Mathematics Department, 2017. Online at: https://people.bath.ac.uk/cspehj/slides/MathsBarriersAdjust/
- Accessible STEM: Anticipating and resolving barriers, BCS Digital Accessibility in Higher & Further Education Conference, 2016. Online at: https://people.bath.ac.uk/cspehj/slides/BCS/
Publications
- Emma Cliffe, Ciarán Mac an Bhaird, Eabhnat Ní Fhloinn, Clare Trott, Mathematics instructors’ awareness of accessibility barriers for disabled students, Oct. 2019. Teaching Mathematics and its Applications: An International Journal of the IMA, https://doi.org/10.1093/teamat/hrz012
- Emma Cliffe, 2015. Creating an accessible learning environment: Anticipating and resolving practical barriers. In Transitions in Undergraduate Mathematics Education Edited by Michael Grove, Tony Croft, Joe Kyle & Duncan Lawson, pp. 227-244.
- Emma Cliffe and Iryna Withington, 2013. Transition to higher education for students with visual impairments in STEM subjects, HESTEM report produced as an outcome of a Disability Practitioner Event: Are we doing it right?. The report is available in Word and PDF formats:
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- Cliffe, E. & Bradshaw, N.-A., 2012. Autism Spectrum Disorders and Group Work in Mathematics. In Student-centred Approaches in Mathematics. National HE STEM Programme: Mathematical Sciences HE Curriculum Innovation Project, pp. 45–47.
- Cliffe, E. & White, J., 2012. Methods to Produce Flexible and Accessible Learning Resources in Mathematics. In Student-centred Approaches in Mathematics. National HE STEM Programme: Mathematical Sciences HE Curriculum Innovation Project, pp. 35–43.
- Cliffe, E. & Rowlett, P. eds., 2012. Good Practice on Inclusive Curricula in the Mathematical Sciences, National HE STEM Programme: Mathematical Sciences HE Curriculum Innovation Project.
Methods to produce flexible and accessible learning resources in mathematics
This work was carried out as part of a HESTEM Mathematics Curriculum Innovation project. We have explored methods to produce flexible and accessible learning resources for mathematics with a focus on producing a guide for staff in HEI to enable them as individuals to create flexible resources efficiently and robustly.
A significant barrier for disabled students who enrol on HE programmes of study involving any mathematical or statistical content is the suitability of the resource format for their particular situation. To date, there is no single facility to produce such resources in a flexible format which can be modified according to individual requirements. We hope to provide staff with the requisite knowledge to access and make use of a small selection of currently available software to produce a variety of accessible formats from a single master document. This will enable departments to:
- design inclusive curriculum delivery;
- anticipate potential barriers and resolve these in a proactive manner;
- communicate realistic expectations to prospective entrants and support staff;
- avoid the use of inflexible learning resources which cannot be tailored to particular needs and
- avoid making costly reactive adjustments for individual students which often result in additional versions of documents which cannot be reused and which are not updated.
Each document below is itself available in multiple formats produced from a single master. They are intended to act as examples in addition to documenting the project and methods. Hence, if you distribute a document please distribute all versions of the document. We recommend linking to the page instead! We have focused on building basic documents which can be transformed. As we embed these processes in our own work we will improve, bug fix and build on these and we will update this site and the documents on it over time.
Questions, problems and feedback to maths-access-stem@bath.ac.uk please!
The challenge: an overview of the project to date
This document provides an overview of:
- The literature identifying which formats may need to be produce for disabled students and the available technologies for transforming mathematical documents.
- The data collected from staff on their current document production methods.
- The process we went through to produce the methods including evaluation of progress.
- The remaining costs and barriers.
The overview document is available in multiple formats:
Guidelines for writing documents
This document describes how to write LaTeX for multiple output formats and including documenting symbol, structure, style and commands constraints. It is available in multiple formats:
This document describes how to write Word documents for multiple output formats including style and symbol constraints. It is available in multiple formats:
Guidelines for software setup, transformations and use of outputs
This document describes how to set up the required software and run the transformations in LaTeX and Word documents. It is available in multiple formats:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.