[Blindmath] psychology statistical diagrams

Tue Oct 26 17:09:31 UTC 2010

Hi, you probably know about this website ... there lots of other
stuff there too; but with a "Mathematica" slant, which may not be
your cup of tea ...

> http://reference.wolfram.com/mathematica/tutorial/MathematicalAndOtherNotationOverview.html

Apologies if this was not what you were thinking of ... and I've
not checked if it is all accessible.

Bernard Diz.

Sean Tikkun wrote:
> I am willing and excited to write that book if no one has yet.  There
> is a long tradition in mathematics of explaining symbols.  It went
> out of style when Hilbert advocated for a standard method of
> mathematical writing.  If people in this list serv.  Know of such a
> book let me know... But I would love to write it, and as my student
> finishes his last 2 years of high school I will have a wonderful
> daily reminder of what symbols should be in there.  Physics,
> Chemistry, Statistics and Calculus in his last two years....  my
> students love or hate me for my encouragement!
> 
> 
> On Oct 25, 2010, at 4:00 PM, Birkir Rúnar Gunnarsson wrote:
> 
>> Not sure this would the the best context to bring this up. But I
>> have always felt that a little more understanding of how sighted
>> people see and do things would benefit us blind folks, or at least
>> some of us (can't generalize, in general). I've always wanted a
>> book that explains the characters (using raised lines or fusing or
>> something), explains how to cross multiply, how square roots look,
>> what a super script and a subscript looks like in text, what the
>> big dividing line is and how it looks in a set up. How does an
>> integral look, what about a sum, etc.
>> 
>> I know some braille codes try to immitate this, which is cool, and
>> I know we can't really work that way, but I think it'd be cool
>> tohave a standard book that showed this, along with the printed
>> symbols. It'd be neat to hve a standard book of sighted mathematics
>> or something along those lines, and it would come with some basic 
>> diagrams that are popular, (bell curve, graphs of distributions,
>> sum of least squares) perhaps even 3d models of the most common
>> shapes usd in mathematics. I managed just fine without these
>> things, but I think the lessons are getting more and more sight
>> centric and I think I would've spent my time in class better, had I
>> had a better understanding of what the professor/teacher was doing.
>>  May be such a book exists, may be I am the only one who finds this
>>  idea attractive, but since it seems vaguely relevant to this 
>> discussion I figured I'd throw it out there. Cheers -Bæ
>> 
>> On 10/25/10, Larry Wayland <larry.wayland at arkansas.gov> wrote:
>>> I agree with Lloyd on this.  I do not think there is anyway a
>>> three dimensional representation can be adequately done using a
>>> Braille drawing. Indicating three dimensions on a two dimension
>>> plane is done by using optical allusions.  You can't do that
>>> tactually.  The lines are all there but they just will not look
>>> three dimensional. Larry
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Larry Wayland -----Original Message----- From:
>>> blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org
>>> [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Rasmussen,
>>> Lloyd Sent: Monday, October 25, 2010 2:15 PM To: Blind Math list
>>> for those interested in mathematics Subject: Re: [Blindmath]
>>> psychology statistical diagrams
>>> 
>>> As a totally blind electronics engineer who got his bachelor's
>>> degree in the 1960's, I think that getting an understanding of
>>> three-dimensional concepts from two-dimensional drawings has
>>> severe limitations.  Is this an isometric or perspective
>>> projection?  From what distance is the "object" being viewed?
>>> 
>>> Talk to the people in the math department who study topology.  Do
>>> they ever make solid models of the shapes they are describing
>>> algebraically?  Note that the solution to the problem of everting
>>> a sphere (turning it inside out) was first proposed by a French
>>> blind mathematician.  He visualized what sighted people were
>>> unable to visualize.
>>> 
>>> Talk to people in mechanical engineering or industrial design
>>> departments about stereolithography or 3D printing, where
>>> numerically controlled machines are used to create solid models
>>> (quite expensively and slowly).
>>> 
>>> Going these routes will not get you all the drawings your
>>> textbooks use, but they should get you enough information and
>>> examples so that you understand the concepts, in some cases more
>>> correctly than sighted students will from the limited viewpoint
>>> of paper and blackboards.
>>> 
>>> Lloyd Rasmussen, Senior Project Engineer National Library Service
>>> for the Blind and Physically Handicapped Library of Congress
>>> 202-707-0535 http://www.loc.gov/nls The preceding opinions are my
>>> own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Library of
>>> Congress, NLS.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message----- From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org
>>> [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Bernard M Diaz
>>>  Sent: Monday, October 25, 2010 2:00 PM To: Rasmussen, Lloyd;
>>> Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics Subject: Re:
>>> [Blindmath] psychology statistical diagrams
>>> 
>>> Hi,
>>> 
>>> I've experience of generating only one diagram that NEEDED 3D - a
>>> plane embedded in 3D; that is a "surface"; and yes used the Tiger
>>> system.  It took about 2 days playing to get a not too successful
>>> result, which we did not use in the end!
>>> 
>>> I'm clearly not very good at this sort of thing, it needs an
>>> artistic (I think that's the best word) flourish which I guess I
>>> don't have.  And I guess, my knowledge of 3D use is limited too
>>> ... I'm sorry I've not looked at economic stuff, trends, and time
>>> series stuff - which I suspect could all benefit from the 3D
>>> aspect you suggest.  I suspect, for each, it would be useful to
>>> know the approach chosen - if anyone attempts to do (or has done
>>> it) please do share your findings.
>>> 
>>> Simple "images" (essentially phtographic stuff rendered into
>>> "tonal pictures") e.g. most of the Tiger examples I've looked at:
>>> flowers parts, coloured country diagrams, digestive systems, most
>>> maps - all work well. Where there is an attempt to get tonal
>>> representation to mimic depth cueing - what I've done suggests:
>>> a) its hard, and b) not too successful at getting over what is
>>> intended.  But, as I say, perhaps I'm not thinking about this in
>>> the correct way - and would appreciate pointers.
>>> 
>>> A final note.  Many staff use Powerpoint. Where a diagram is
>>> involved I suggest that they copy the "slide" then edit that to
>>> remove all but the diagram.  Enlarge that so that it fuses
>>> correctly ("touchably" .... is that the correct word? This also
>>> involves thinking about any colour coding used) and provide in
>>> the "notes" section for that slide a textual description of the
>>> diagram using the language guideline mentioned before.  Then,
>>> those slides are "hidden" with a note that they are for
>>> "accessibility purposes". The idea is that the student (or
>>> teacher) can fuse the diagram (slide object); Jaws the notes
>>> section (notes object) while "touching" the fused version, and
>>> have Jaws read any text on the slide proper as well. ...
>>> 
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> 
> 
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