[Blindmath] Teaching Undergraduates with Vision loss

[Richard Baldwin]

Hi Christine,

You didn't say what subject you will be teaching, but if it is in any way
related to physics, your students might find my free ebook titled Accessible
Physics Concepts for Blind Students at
http://cnx.org/content/col11294/latest/ to be useful.

Regarding interaction, as someone who has taught both computer programming
and physics to a blind student at the college level, if you can set aside
time for lots of one-on-one interaction, you will probably find that time to
be very productive. The above mentioned ebook is an ongoing project
resulting from my experience tutoring a blind student in physics.

Regarding the use of Power Point slides, unless the blind student has a copy
of the slides and can follow along with a portable computer and a screen
reader in the classroom, slides are not effective. Even then, you need to
ensure that you and the blind student are on the same slide keeping in mind
that the blind student with a screen reader can only experience one line of
text at a time. Also keep in mind that the student has an auditory conflict
listening to the screen reader while also listening to you.

If the slides contain images, you will need to describe each image in detail
because screen readers are incapable of helping the student  "see" the
image. I recommend that you think carefully about every image in advance of
each lecture and identify the essential features of the image needed to
convey the information for which the image is intended. Then be prepared to
explain those essential features in detail. In fact, if you can meet with
the student before class and discuss the upcoming images, that would
probably be beneficial.

In my opinion, the extensive use of unexplained images, particularly in
physics textbooks, is one of the greatest barriers that blind students face
in their efforts to succeed in such courses. Textbook authors often assume
that images will be self-explanatory, which they may be if you can see them.
Unfortunately they then take the notion that a picture is worth a thousand
words literally and omit the thousand words that a blind student needs to
understand the material. If you can't see the images, they obviously aren't
self-explanatory.

The other great barrier is the extensive use of mathematical equations that
are rendered in a manner (pdf) that resists automatic conversion to a form
that a blind student can understand. So, even if your blind student has a
pdf copy of the textbook, considerable manual assistance may be needed to
convert portions of the pdf files into a form that a blind student can
understand. Such manual conversions take a lot of time and effort on
someone's part, so you need to be very flexible regarding schedules.

I could probably go on and on about the barriers that blind students
continually face in college classes, particularly technical classes, but I
don't want to be preaching, so I'll stop at this point.

Hope that this has been at least a little helpful.

Dick Baldwin

On Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 9:36 AM, Christine Szostak <szostak.1 at osu.edu> wrote:

> Dear Friends and Colleagues,
>  This winter I will be teaching an  undergraduate course. Since many
> scientists and mathematicians frequently teach, I was wondering if anyone
> has tips for teaching with out any vision at  the university level (e.g.,
> tips on handling grading, attendance, classroom interaction, PowerPoint,
> teaching visual material...).
> Many thanks,
> Christine
> Christine  M. Szostak
> Doctoral Candidate
> Language Perception Laboratory
> Department of Psychology, Cognitive Area
> The Ohio State University
> Columbus, Ohio
> szostak.1 at osu.edu
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-- 
Richard G. Baldwin (Dick Baldwin)
Home of Baldwin's on-line Java Tutorials
http://www.DickBaldwin.com

Professor of Computer Information Technology
Austin Community College
(512) 223-4758
mailto:Baldwin at DickBaldwin.com
http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/