Accessibility in Maths and Stats

Chris Hughes

The Open University

Wednesday 15th July, 2020

Chris Hughes (The Open University) M&S accessibility 15/7/20 1 / 35

People who have disabilities do not wish to ”be included”: theywish it to be acknowledged that they already belong. [6]

. . . universities must make reasonable adjustments so that dis-abled people are not disadvantaged relative to non-disabled peo-ple. Further, these adjustments should be made in anticipation ofthe needs of disabled people, rather than only on request [7]

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Legislative links

EqualityAct [12]

TechnicalGuidance

on FE andHE [4]

Public SectorEqualityDuty [8]

Public sectorwebsites and

apps [13]

See also[14]

and [7]

The OpenUniversityEquality

Scheme [5]

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Reasonable adjustments

to avoid as far as possible by reasonable means the disadvantagewhich a disabled student experiences because of their disability[15]

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HESA data: Student enrolments, AY 18/19

known disabilityInstitution yes no Total

The Open University 27,300 (22%) 95,060 122,360Sheffield Hallam University 5,895 (19%) 24,820 30,715University of Manchester 5,540 (14%) 34,710 40,250Nottingham Trent University 5,210 (16%) 28,045 33,255Manchester Metropolitan University 4,645 (14%) 28,405 33,050University of Nottingham 4,560 (14%) 28,980 33,540University of Sheffield 4,300 (14%) 25,895 30,195...

......

...

Source: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-4

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Disclosed disabilities at The Open University

Mental HealthDyslexiaFatigue PainUnseenMobilityOther disabilityAutismManual skillsHearingSpeechPersonal careVisual

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Accessibility challenges in Maths and Stats

∫ b

a

(x2

3+ cosx

)dx

x y

1 π2 e3 44 −105 17

−4 4

−10

10

(3,−8)

(−1, 0) x

y

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Maths & Stats Accessibility Group: May 2017 onwards

Studentfacing

SRSC

DST

Tutor

StaffTutorDAS

LibraryDSS

School aca-demic leads

Module teams

AC M&S

SeGA

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Figure descriptions

to convey essential information to a student who cannot see it, inorder for them to achieve the learning outcome intended by theauthor [11]

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example 1: figure description, M337

This figure shows the unlabelled complex plane, and isconcentrated in the first quadrant. It shows a contourcapital gamma marked with an arrow in ananticlockwise direction. The contour is made up ofthree line segments. The first labelled capital gammasub 1 from zero to the labelled point 2, the secondlabelled capital gamma sub 2 from the point 2 to thelabelled point 2 plus i and the last labelled capitalgamma sub 3 from 2 plus i to the labelled point i.There are solid dots at 0, 2, 2 plus i and i.

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example 1: figure description, M337

This figure shows the unlabelled complex plane, and isconcentrated in the first quadrant. It shows a contourcapital gamma marked with an arrow in ananticlockwise direction. The contour is made up ofthree line segments. The first labelled capital gammasub 1 from zero to the labelled point 2, the secondlabelled capital gamma sub 2 from the point 2 to thelabelled point 2 plus i and the last labelled capitalgamma sub 3 from 2 plus i to the labelled point i.There are solid dots at 0, 2, 2 plus i and i.

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example 2: figure description, M337

This is a black-and-white photograph of the Frenchmathematician Gaston Julia. Sections of thephotograph are faded, but it shows a strikinglyhandsome young man with short dark hair lookingdirectly at the camera. He wears a dark double-breastedjacket and is posing stylishly as he plays his violin infront of a wood-panelled wall.

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example 3: the language we use

Find the general solution of the differential equation

dy

dx+ y = 3.

SolutionThe integrating factor is

p(x) = exp

(∫(1)dx

)= ex.

The general solution is

y =1

ex

∫3exdx

= e−x (3ex + c)

= 3 + ce−x,

where c is an arbitrary constant.

Chris Hughes (The Open University) M&S accessibility 15/7/20 12 / 35

example 3: the language we use

Find the general solution of the differential equation

dy

dx+ y = 3.

SolutionThe integrating factor is

p(x) = exp

(∫(1)dx

)= ex.

The general solution is

y =1

ex

∫3exdx

= e−x (3ex + c)

= 3 + ce−x,

where c is an arbitrary constant.

Chris Hughes (The Open University) M&S accessibility 15/7/20 12 / 35

example 3: the language we use

Find the general solution of the differential equation

dy

dx+ y = 3.

SolutionThe integrating factor is

p(x) = exp

(∫(1)dx

)= ex.

The general solution is

y =1

ex

∫3exdx

= e−x (3ex + c)

= 3 + ce−x,

where c is an arbitrary constant.Chris Hughes (The Open University) M&S accessibility 15/7/20 12 / 35

Blind users of assistive technology

Outputs for consideration include:

PDF files using the axessibility package, [2]

ePUB3; see, for example, DAISY seminar series, [3]

HTML with MathML, [10]

Conversion tools for LATEX users include:

(1) plasTeX, https://github.com/plastex/plastex

(2) Pandoc, https://pandoc.org/

(3) tex4ht, https://www.tug.org/tex4ht/

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Blind users of assistive technology

Outputs for consideration include:

PDF files using the axessibility package, [2]

ePUB3; see, for example, DAISY seminar series, [3]

HTML with MathML, [10]

Conversion tools for LATEX users include:

(1) plasTeX, https://github.com/plastex/plastex

(2) Pandoc, https://pandoc.org/

(3) tex4ht, https://www.tug.org/tex4ht/

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Getting started with tex4ht, via make4ht I

(1) Do you have make4ht installed? The current version is 0.3e:

C:\Users\chris>make4ht -v

(2) Let’s use the following minimal LaTeX file:

talmo1.tex

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

hello TALMO: $y=x^2$.\end{document}

C:\Users\chris>make4ht talmo1.tex

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Getting started with tex4ht, via make4ht II

(3) We can configure tex4ht using configuration files

talmo.cfg

\Preamble{xhtml,mathml,-css,NoFonts}

\Configure{@HEAD}{%

\HCode{<script

src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/mathjax/2.7.5/

MathJax.js?config=TeX-AMS-MML_HTMLorMML">\Hnewline</script>\Hnewline}}

\begin{document}

\EndPreamble

and then call make4ht using

C:\Users\chris>make4ht -c talmo.cfg talmo1.tex

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Getting started with tex4ht, via make4ht III

(4) Relevant links and resources:I See https://www.tug.org/tex4ht/ for further options andI the make4ht documentationI How to update your TeX distributionI the tex stackexchange questions tagged with tex4ht

Chris Hughes (The Open University) M&S accessibility 15/7/20 20 / 35

Looking ahead

We continue to:

(1) prioritise accessibility and the associatedstudent support;

(2) communicate with experts across theinstitution and the UK, learning fromand contributing to best practices;...

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References I

[1] Martyn Cooper, Tim Lowe, and Mary Taylor. “Access toMathematics in Web Resources for People with a VisualImpairment”. In: Computers Helping People with Special Needs.Ed. by Klaus Miesenberger et al. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer BerlinHeidelberg, 2008, pp. 926–933. isbn: 978-3-540-70540-6.

[2] Sandro Coriasco. axessibility – Access to formulas in PDF files byassistive technologies. url:https://www.ctan.org/pkg/axessibility (visited on07/15/2019).

[3] DAISY consortium articles. url:https://daisy.org/news-events/articles/ (visited on07/10/2020).

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References II

[4] Equality Act 2010 Technical Guidance on Further and HigherEducation. url:https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/publication-

download/equality-act-2010-technical-guidance-further-

and-higher-education (visited on 07/12/2019).

[5] Equality Scheme & Objectives. url:http://www.open.ac.uk/equality-

diversity/content/equality-scheme-objectives (visited on07/12/2019).

[6] Elizabeth Hastings. FounDDAtions: Reflections on the first five yearsof the Disability Discrimination Act in Australia. 1997. url:https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/disability-

rights/publications/founddations-reflections-first-

five-years-disability (visited on 10/24/2017).

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References III

[7] Robert McLaren. Accessible virtual learning environments. 2018.url: https://www.policyconnect.org.uk/appgat/sites/site_appgat/

files/report/436/fieldreportdownload/appgatreport09-

18finalweb.pdf (visited on 11/22/2019).

[8] Public sector equality duty. url:https://www.ecu.ac.uk/guidance-resources/equality-

legislation/public-sector-equality-duty/ (visited on07/12/2019).

[9] Freedom Scientific. JAWS Headquarters. url: https://support.freedomscientific.com/JAWSHQ/JAWSHeadquarters01 (visitedon 07/14/2019).

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References IV

[10] Freedom Scientific. JAWS screen reader. url: https://www.freedomscientific.com/products/software/jaws

(visited on 07/14/2019).

[11] SeGA. Describing visual teaching materials. url:https://openuniv.sharepoint.com/sites/units/iet/iet-

sega/SitePages/Describing-visual-teaching-

materials.aspx (visited on 11/25/2019).

[12] The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s guide for EducationProviders. url:https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/advice-and-

guidance/higher-education-providers-guidance (visited on07/12/2019).

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References V

[13] Understanding new accessibility requirements for public sectorbodies. url: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/accessibility-requirements-for-public-sector-websites-and-apps

(visited on 07/12/2019).

[14] Web and app accessibility – make the most of the EU Accessibilitydirective. url: https://accessibility.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2018/09/13/web-app-

accessibility-make-eu-accessibility-directive/ (visitedon 07/12/2019).

[15] What are reasonable adjustments? url:https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/advice-and-

guidance/what-are-reasonable-adjustments (visited on11/22/2019).

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