Accessibility covers a potentially wide remit of barriers which could:
- Impact access to mathematics and/or statistics within a course and/or
- Impact access to mathematics and statistics support itself.
This might include:
- barriers experienced by students with maths anxiety, Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD), Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), sensory impairment, restricted mobility/motor control, mental health, fatigue or pain conditions;
- widening participation considerations or
- language barriers.
Past and current work by the SIG
- We completed a survey with a focus on barriers arising for students with disabilities or who experience mathematics anxiety. The results of this were published in Mathematics instructors’ awareness of accessibility barriers for disabled students, Emma Cliffe, Ciarán Mac an Bhaird, Eabhnat Ní Fhloinn, Clare Trott, Oct. 2019. Teaching Mathematics and its Applications: An International Journal of the IMA
- We have produced and continue to produce short resources for managers and tutors on access barriers. These are available for download, as they become available, from the access section of the operating a maths support service page.
- Members are assisting in projects to convert HELM and mathcentre resources to accessible formats
Current focus
The SIG group meet regularly online to discuss cognitive and affective barriers to mathematical learning. We seek to bring together sigma members with specific interest or expertise in these areas.
- To join the SIG email a short introductory paragraph outlining your areas of expertise and/or interest to mash-sigma@bath.ac.uk
- Those interested in working on technical and practical access barriers should get involved with the JISC Accessibility Community Maths Working Group as we hope pooling all expertise in one group will be most effective. You can join the A11yMaths mailing list or ask for an introduction by emailing mash-sigma@bath.ac.uk.
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- Members of the JISC group who are also sigma members are invited to help out with our technical access work on mathcentre and statstutor. Please email mash-sigma@bath.ac.uk to offer assistance!
Direction and organisation
- Ruth Hand (University of Bath): SIG Co-chair (Cognitive/affective)
- Emma Cliffe (University of Bath): SIG Co-chair (Technical/practical)
- Ciaran Mac an Bhaird (Maynooth University), (outgoing) Short resources project lead
The Terms of Reference of the Accessibility SIG are available here