Making Math Accessible

Pearson Higher Education Commits to 100% Accessible Math by 2014

Steve Noble, Accessibility Research Consultant (Guest Author)

Rick Clinton, Accessibility Advocate and Leader at Pearson Higher Education, recently blogged in Accessible Mathematics: HTML eBooks about Pearson's work to create "screen-readable" eBook versions of their mathematics and statistics textbooks which are formatted in HTML and MathML. They have been gradually adding to this collection for a while, which now numbers 70 titles. That's a nice-sized library of accessible math textbooks in its own right. But what is really notable in his post is the statement that, "...beginning in 2014, every Pearson college math and stats text will have an HTML eBook version." That's an impressive commitment from a publisher like Pearson Higher Education, and means that every math textbook they publish from now on will include accessible mathematics. Pearson is setting an example for the whole publishing industry, and deserves commendation for their resolve to support math accessibility.
 
Of course, there are many other publishers of math textbooks, and they all need to hear from people like you who purchase and use textbooks. If you want to see more accessible math textbooks offered by more publishers, then you'll need to make your demands and expectations known to them.

Here are a few ways you can help:

• If you are connected to a college, tell your math department about Pearson's accessible math titles. Teachers should strongly consider adopting one of their HTML eBook versions.
• If you teach a college math or stats course and your favorite textbook isn't one of these Pearson titles, then contact the publisher and ask them how soon they will be creating an eBook version with accessible math like Pearson. If they don't have any realistic plans to create one, then tell them you are strongly considering switching to a Pearson title.
• If you are connected to a K-12 school, then be sure to contact the publishers of your math textbooks with the same message. Even at Pearson, the higher education and K-12 divisions are not connected, so the K-12 publishing sector needs to hear the same message. Hold up the example of Pearson Higher Education as testimony that making *every* math title accessible is a vital goal that can--and should--be done.

To learn more about how and why math should be made accessible, check out Solutions for the Accessibility Community section of our website.

Steve Noble is a research consultant with a core focus in mathematics accessibility and assistive technology, and served as a researcher for the University of Kentucky's MeTRC research project. Currently he continues to serve on grant-funded research projects with both Bridge Multimedia and ETS, and previously served as Director of Accessibility Policy for Design Science.

Positive results from math eText accessibility study published

Math accessibility is one of the biggest challenges faced by teachers of students with visual difficulties or impairments. In February, Steve Noble's blog post (MeTRC Research Underscores Need for Accessible Math) talked about a study involving students with reading-related learning disabilities. The study found that these students have 2-3 times as much difficulty reading math than they do reading plain text. When given accessible math materials, their outcomes on tests were much better than those students who didn't have access to accessible materials.

Adding additional credibility to their findings, these results have now been published in Information Technology and Disabilities Journal a peer-reviewed journal.

With positive outcomes like this, you may want to know what you can do to help your students.  Please see "What can you do to help promote math accessibility?" for some suggestions on what you can do to get accessible books into your classroom

MeTRC Research Underscores Need for Accessible Math

Steve Noble, Accessibility Research Consultant (Guest Author)

This week I'm in San Antonio, at the Learning Disability Association of America's 50th Annual International Conference. On Thursday, I'll be presenting a session entitled Implementing an Accessible Digital Math Curriculum in the Classroom. In this session, I will discussing some of the research findings of the recently concluded University of Kentucky Curriculum Conversion and Implementation research strand, which was conducted under the auspices of the national Mathematics eText Research Center (MeTRC).

This was a multiyear project to examine the feasibility of implementing a digital math curriculum using MathML for middle school students with learning disabilities who had reading accommodations specified in their Individualized Education Program (IEP). An initial full year pilot was conducted with seventeen students in both resource room and collaborative setting, and followed by another full year case study with six students in a single resource room. Although the relatively small sample of students may limit the significance of the findings, this study nonetheless provides important research findings which underscore the need for accessible math in the classroom.

One relevant finding of this research is a confirmation that students with learning disabilities have a problem with reading math notation without math-enabled assistive technology. The common belief held by many educators is that students with reading disabilities only need text-to-speech (TTS) technologies for subject areas where lots of text has to be read, and the only time TTS might be used in the math classroom is for reading word problems. However, our study found that students who have reading disabilities have two to three times as much difficulty reading math symbols and notation than they do reading plain text. This finding helps to support the conclusion that many students may need accessible content in the math classroom even more than they do for subjects like English and social studies.

Our study findings also suggest that students with learning disabilities who used accessible math with their assistive technology had better learning outcomes than students who used standard print materials with human provided read-aloud accommodations. During the case study period, the students who used accessible math materials outpaced similar students who used standard print materials by twice as much. Since this was a case study without formal controls and a small sample, the results have limitations. Nonetheless, this finding lends support to similar past research which has suggested positive student learning outcomes when accessible math is provided.

If you are interested in reading more details about this study, you may want to look over the presentation we gave last month at ATIA, Accessible Digital Math Curriculum = Reading Words + Symbols. Our research team has also written an extensive article on our findings, which should be published later this spring.

After reading about these results, many of you will be energized about getting accessible math into your schools. In that case, please be sure to look over the resource page, "What can you do to help promote math accessibility?" You'll find a number of suggestions to get you and your school on the road to accessible math.

Steve Noble is a research consultant with a core focus in mathematics accessibility and assistive technology, and served as a researcher for the University of Kentucky's MeTRC research project. Currently he continues to serve on grant-funded research projects with both Bridge Multimedia and ETS, and previously served as Director of Accessibility Policy for Design Science.

Accessible Math Coming to a School near You!

Following the Department of Education's guidance for NIMAS publisher, the NIMAS Center at CAST has recently issued recommended language to be used by states and local districts in state contracts or purchase orders for math and science textbooks. Wisconsin and Rhode Island have already moved to adopt this new language, and more states are on the way. These proactive states are wasting no time to ensure that mathematical and scientific instructional content will be fully accessible to their students with disabilities.

If you live in these states that means much better math accessibility is coming your way. If you live in another state, contact your NIMAS Primary Contact person and ask what you can do to persuade your state to also adopt this language. By taking the time to point out the benefits of using this new language as Wisconsin and Rhode Island have done, you can help ensure that you, your children, your students, or your friends will have greatly improved access to math and science materials.

For further suggestions of how to advocate for accessible math, see What can you do to help promote math accessibility?

School for the Blind Leads the Way in Accessible Math

Steve Noble, Accessibility Research Consultant (Guest Author)

Recently, the Washington State School for the Blind has had a bit of good press (School for Blind Leads the Way in Distance Learning) about their innovative distance learning work. The school won first place in the "Cutting-Edge Use of Technology for Learning" category of Microsoft's Partners in Learning U.S. Forum award competition.

Although the award recognizes the school's use of Microsoft's Lync distance learning software for blind students in the math classroom, that's only one aspect of the their cutting-edge use of technology for learning. 

Beginning this school year, students at the school are using an accessible digital version of their Algebra 1 textbook created using MathML. As part of a federally-funded research grant led by Purdue University, students are reading their math textbook with the ReadHear™ DAISY player by gh in a distance education setting.

The school is also a pilot test site for the federally-funded research grant conducted jointly by Educational Testing Service and Design Science. The results of this research will provide students who are blind or have other visual impairments, the tools they need to learn, practice, and take math and science tests on par with their sighted peers.

By providing math students with accessible textbooks and an accessible testing environment--two very critical components of instruction--the Washington State School for the Blind is showing the world that math can be made accessible. We certainly want to congratulate the Washington State School for the Blind on their recent award, and commend them for their progress in math accessibility!

If you are interested in making the math in textbooks or classroom materials accessible to students with print disabilities, we have plenty of information available on our math accessibility pages.

Steve Noble is a research consultant with a core focus in mathematics accessibility and assistive technology. Currently he serves on grant-funded research projects with both the University of Kentucky and Bridge Multimedia, and previously served as Director of Accessibility Policy for Design Science.