1 Overview of the literature

A review of the literature and available technologies confirmed the formats that we might need to produce but also furnished us with extensive lists of technologies which might assist us. We present an overview of this literature here.

The provision of partial notes in mathematics courses is perceived by students as beneficial to their learning and is strongly related to high academic performance [1]. However, a significant barrier for disabled students is the suitability of the learning resource format provided. Many of the contributions to the Good Practice on Inclusive Curricula in the Mathematical Sciences guide [2] highlight the need for full notes in specific formats to be provided prior to classes. Some case studies available in mathematical subject areas such as on the Strategies for Creating Inclusive Programmes of Study [3] and Disabilities: Academic Resource Tool [4] also confirm the need for full notes, sometimes in specific formats.

Some students require full notes in Braille [6, 5, 2], possibly using a Braille display [7, 2] either for Braille mathematics or direct access to the L^aT_eX  code [8]. Other students require large print and authors highlight that large print is not simply a matter of using a larger font but also requires some or all of changes to spacing, page layout, layout of the mathematics, font or colour [10, 8]. However, students (and staff!) are likely to have difficulty creating a large print version even if provided with the L^aT_eX  source [9], the lack of line-breaking in the equations being a primary issue and the MathType format is highlighted as being useful [2]. The RNIB Clear Print guidelines are a useful starting point [11] and note the minimum font size etc. considered advisable for general resources. For students reading in Braille or large print access to full notes in class act as an alternative to the board and permit the student to follow the lecture content.

Students who are d/Deaf are not able to lipread, watch a BSL/English interpreter or lipspeaker and take notes. If a student does not have some form of note-taker they will not be able to write down what you write on the board. For a student lipreading all verbal information given while facing the board e.g. to annotate working, will be lost [12]. Some practices known to be beneficial in d/Deaf education are available to lecturers including the provision of visual organisers, using a collaborative, case study, problem-solving approach (where possible) and pre-teaching (or, at least, enabling preparation) of specialised vocabulary [13]. This suggests that notes which clearly highlight terminology, use visual organisers and include examples are likely to be helpful.

Some disabled students experience difficulties copying precisely, knowing what to write down, maintaining concentration or their place in text or retaining definitions in memory. This might include some students with specific learning difficulties (e.g. dyslexia, dyspraxia), students with Asperger syndrome, mental health and fatigue conditions. Access to full notes in a suitable format enables the main activity in class to be the desired engagement with concepts and logical arguments. Formats including those presented in sans serif fonts, clearly structured documents, coloured backgrounds, formats which can be adapted by the students to their font, spacing and colour requirements, formats with colour or structural highlighting of equation scope, audio formats or formats which can be read loud, video formats of real time manipulation, visual organisers such as mind-maps and flow diagrams, notes which can be annotated in class and formats from which formula can be copied and pasted or notes electronically annotated are all reported as being of assistance [2, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18].

In summary, the use of visual organisers helps some students as does the provision of editable formats. Other students might require quite specific formats which may include clear print, large print and formats accessible by text-to-speech (e.g. literacy support software used by dyslexic students), screenreader or Braille technologies. Word or PDF documents containing mathematics cannot easily be produced in these formats.

In order to provide such a range of formats we require a method to produce a single master version, which can be updated over time, from which the multiple required formats can be produced automatically. Using a single master is not a new idea [19, 20, 21] but we require viable methods which specifically produce accessible formats.

Cooper [22, 23, 2] neatly captures the technical challenges and general approaches which we might need to take. The use of MathML [24] is a key technology as this enables speech to be produced, equations to scale with the surrounding text and reflow, linebreaking as necessary. Scalable graphics can also be used to permit scaling of equations [25] and automated linebreaking is possible in L^aT_eX  [26].

MathML is not designed for humans to read and write directly! The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) maintains extensive lists of technologies which produce MathML or convert between MathML and other formats [27] and these formed a starting point. However, guidance from the literature [28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36] greatly facilitates comparisons between and understanding of these technologies!

MathML is not the only format we considered. The TeX User Group (TUG) maintains lists of converters between L^aT_eX  and word processor formats [37, 38] and the American Mathematical Society (AMS) maintain a list of TeX related resources [39].

Finally, the many reference documents on L^aT_eX  hosted by the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network [40] and the bug trackers of all the software we worked with sometimes gave insights as to the likely cause of misbehaviours of the transform technologies in the face of the author’s freedom to use and abuse L^aT_eX  [41]!

We list the main technologies that were used during the evaluation in Appendix A though some which we incidentally interacted with (mainly other L^aT_eX  packages) are not listed.