The Jisc Accessible Maths working group started in 2021. It was formed from a small group of people in the Jisc Accessibility Community who showed interest in working on this topic and were mostly NOT maths lecturers but a mix of learning technologists (LT) or people with accessibility roles. After Fiona McNab, our first chair, left for the private sector, the group was chaired by Lilian Joy (York) and Jenny Hughes (Sheffield) who started the mailing list and grew the number of attendees from HE. They then handed the reins over to Cordelia Webb (Leeds/Edinburgh/Imperial College) and Luke Seale (Southampton) in 2024. Under Cordelia’s leadership the group has now grown to encompass many more universities and strategic contributors such as members of the LaTeX project. The group now has a Google site with resources, minutes and recordings so everyone can benefit from knowing about what we’re all working on: Jisc Accessible Maths Working Group site. As the group grew bigger, it became harder to ensure we could help newcomers to understand the world of accessible maths. Attendees with an accessibility or learning technology background sometimes had difficulty following along with some of the more technical or mathematical discussions. Some of the learning technologists who have worked in accessible maths for a longer time got together to discuss how we could create a Learning Technologist and Accessible Maths mentoring group. We’re pleased to say we have a framework for LTs to feel more supported in the world of accessible maths!
We have meetings about every 8 weeks and discuss what we are grappling with and seek each other’s advice on how to help academics to make their content more accessible when we are not experts in their subject. Some of the things we’ve discussed include
- Feeling professionally exposed and vulnerable – not an expert in STEM but working with experts in STEM.
- How to upskill ourselves so we can speak the ‘language’ of the people we are supporting.
- How to get started with some of the jargon and tools.
We are starting to grow our numbers so the challenge will always remain: how to enable new people to join and get going, while helping those further on in their journey to progress. I wrote about my accessible maths journey as a learning technologist to provide some kind of map for others who don’t know where to start – I certainly didn’t! A group consensus has been that you just need to start with one academic or one student and learn all you can about their workflow. From there, you have a point of reference to grow your own knowledge and skills. It can feel messy so having a glossary on hand to refer to and making your own primer for accessible maths can be a way to make sense of things.
I’m envious of universities with departments that have mandated that they produce HTML notes for all students. In theory, that must make it so much easier for a Learning Technologist! However, there is also a benefit in keeping a more ‘messy’ eco-system, but with a key principle: whatever format an academic is working in, can they easily create an alternative format for a student when they want it? The reason I stick with this mantra is that over the years, I’ve seen how resistant people can be to changing tools and this one consideration can sometimes be the thing that helps them see the benefits of trying something else. Also, we know students come with all kinds of preferences and not everyone wants ONLY a HTML site of beautiful notes; they may want something they can easily keep offline or make their own notes on. For some students, that is still a PDF, and for others a Word document.
I’m very grateful that we have a group who can work these things out with each other. Our identity as learning technologists blends pedagogy and technology with a student-first mindset, enabling us to help academics teach more inclusively and accessibly. We may not know the maths, but we can help to work out a good workflow that brings benefits for everyone.
Interested in receiving some learning technology and accessible maths mentoring? Fill in the form on our Learning Technologist page on the A11yMaths site.