Context

Maths, Stats and Physics has around 900 undergraduate students and around 100 taught modules.

In MSP, over 13% of students have an SSP, compared to 6% in Engineering and 7% in Computing. Many students without SSPs would benefit from accessibility improvements.

Maths is different: typesetting mathematical notation is hard, and typesetting maths in accessible formats is even harder.

Lecturers typically prepare material in LaTeX or write by hand in lectures.

Chirun is a tool to produce accessible course material from LaTeX or Markdown source, developed here.

The beginning

We introduced Chirun in 2017 to support an incoming student with long list of accessibility requirements.

To speed things up, we paid students to type up existing handwritten notes in LaTeX.

Aim: improve accessibility for all teaching, not just this student. Provide a consistent level of accessibility that enables almost all students to access their material without adjustments.

🥕 The carrot

I talked at the school's all-staff meetings about how students struggle with existing material and how to use our tools to produce accessible content.

We offered support to anyone who wanted it: we'd take their material and make it accessible.

😇 (some) Lecturers take accessibility very seriously

Many lecturers responded positively and gave us material to run through Chirun.

A handful of lecturers understood the brief and produced accessible material on their own. Thanks!

Some used their own tools, such as Bookdown.

After a year, some modules had all material available in accessible formats.

😠 (some) Lecturers don't take accessibility seriously

After two years, take-up was very low: less than 25% of modules were acceptable.

Common complaints:

Why should I do all that for one student?

Every student deserves to learn!

Is this student even any good?

Doesn't matter!

I'm overworked and don't have time to do this.

So let us help!

I don't know what to do.

Let us show you!

🧹 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, who talked directly to lecturers.

I emailed individual lecturers offering to take the job off their hands if they'd send me their material.

✔️ This mainly worked!

Now, more than two thirds of modules have all material available in accessible formats.

Many physicists use PowerPoint and I can only offer them advice. 🤷🏻

We've moved on to looking at other aspects of accessibility: in-person delivery, communication, lecture recordings, …

What you can do

• Use Chirun to make your material accessible: it's available as an external tool in Canvas. chirun.org.uk

• Read our guidance on accessible teaching: www.mas.ncl.ac.uk/accessible-teaching

Talk to us

Website

ncl.ac.uk/maths-physics/engagement/digital-learning

Email

msp.digital.learning@ncl.ac.uk