A systematic approach to enable production of accessible course materials

A systematic approach to enable production of accessible course materials.

School: Mathematics, Physics and Astronomy, Engineering, and Philosophy, Psychology and Language Science

Team: Dr Charlotte Desvages, Mrs Ania Domagala, Dr Ben Goddard, Mr Ian Hesketh, Ms Elena Ioannidou, Dr Pavel Iosad, Dr Steven O’Hagan, and Dr Konstantina Zerva

Abstract

The University is required to provide learning materials in accessible formats. Although guidance is provided through Information Services for some document formats (e.g., MS Office), workflows deviating from these are not currently supported. In particular, in subjects where extensive use of mathematical notation, or other non-standard characters, is required, the LaTeX typesetting language is used almost ubiquitously to generate PDF lecture notes, worksheets, and slides. However, these documents do not currently fulfil accessibility requirements.

Different approaches to produce accessible documents from LaTeX source files exist; however, none are standard, and they are certainly not widely adopted across the University. Barriers include technological expertise and means, workload, and inconsistent quality of output. We aim to close this gap by identifying and overcoming such barriers in a systematic manner, working in collaboration with a diverse community of educators and students.

To do so, the project team will guide student interns to carry out the technical work of co-creating a standardised workflow, in continuous consultation with teaching staff. This will be followed by training and dissemination workshops, which, together with the provision of well-documented workflows, guidance, and template documents, will support both immediate and long-term improvements to the student experience.