[Blindmath] students studying engineering

Fri Aug 12 22:32:32 UTC 2011

Hello:
There are blind students studying engineering all over the world that are
totally blind and there are still people actively working as engineers that
are totally blind s well.  The hardest thing to do is find a lot of them in
one place at one time.  

a few years ago, I was about to leave work and almost sat on a guy on the
bus.  He was extremely low-vision, but had very good central vision.  He saw
my cane and asked me about how I learned to use it and how long I was blind.
Later during the conversation, he told me he was finishing up training at a
local facility for blind students.  When I asked what he intended to do
after he finished, he said he wanted to go back to work somewhere, but he
did not know any blind engineers .  I told him to shake my hand, because he
was in the immediate vicinity of two of them!

This guy had a Bachelor's degree in Bio-medical Engineering and still had a
current professional engineer's license in the state of Maryland.  He had
quite working over ten years earlier when his vision started to wane.  This
guy was an engineering manager and quit, because he did not know how to make
his job accessible and did not know of any other blind engineers.

His rehab counselor, who used to be a colleague at the same facility where
he was training, knew that I and my fellow blind engineer, both worked as
researchers at the Veterans Administration and never told him about us!
Let's see, she is almost totally blind as a result of Retinitis Pigmentosa,
and her own sister, who has the same disease, has worked as a Social Worker
in the same building for twenty years!  If the blind people don't let other
blind people know that blind engineers exist, then how do sighted people
find out?

-----Original Message-----
From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of blindmath-request at nfbnet.org
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2011 1:00 PM
To: blindmath at nfbnet.org
Subject: Blindmath Digest, Vol 61, Issue 13

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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: are there any visually impaired studying medicine	or
      engineering subjects also? (Amanda Lacy)
   2. Re: Teacher with Vision Loss Teaching Sighted Undergrads
      (Jonathan Godfrey)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:31:23 -0500
From: "Amanda Lacy" <lacy925 at gmail.com>
To: "Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics"
	<blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] are there any visually impaired studying
	medicine	or engineering subjects also?
Message-ID: <4411F53455DB4EA0BDE079197D374B8E at DD4DJCK1>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
	reply-type=response

Extremely encouraging. Thanks for posting it.

Amanda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ben Humphreys" <brh at opticinspiration.org>
To: "Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics" 
<blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2011 6:43 AM
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] are there any visually impaired studying medicine 
or engineering subjects also?

> iqbal
>
> Check out Freedom Scientific Podcast #44
>
> http://www.freedomscientific.com/fscast/default.asp
>
> In it, Dr Tim Cordes, one of only two qualified medical doctors in the 
> United States is interviewed.
>
> Ben
>
> At 05:15 AM 8/11/2011, you wrote:
>>hi all,
>>i am interested to know if there are any visually impaired people are 
>>studying medicine or engineering subjects. any information in this regard 
>>will be highly appreciated.
>>i apologize if this kind of inquiry is forbidden in this group.
>>
>>thanks and regards.
>>iqbal.
>>_______________________________________________
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>>Blindmath at nfbnet.org
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>>Blindmath:
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iration.org
>
>
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om 

------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2011 10:50:03 +1200
From: "Jonathan Godfrey" <a.j.godfrey at massey.ac.nz>
To: "'Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics'"
	<blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Teacher with Vision Loss Teaching Sighted
	Undergrads
Message-ID: <D5A4DCE2E975417EA2D9673BBE2F23D8 at massey.ac.nz>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"

Hello,

I've been trying to find a private email I sent to a woman in Australia on
this topic a couple of years ago to save myself from typing out everything
again, but as she and I did not discuss the web interface aspects of course
delivery I will address this now.

I'm pleased to hear Blackboard is accessible from both a student and staff
perspectives.

My university uses Moodle (although we have rebranded the product to suit
local desires) and before that we used WebCT.

I found WebCT impossible to use as a course designer but as a student it
worked well. There were some difficulties using all features that WebCT had
to offer even as a student but I didn't want to engage in discussion forums
and the like anyway.

Moodle is not well geared to suit me and I rely heavily on sighted
assistance to get it to work for me. From a  student perspective the pages
are very readable. As soon as it is time to edit the pages though the
frustration begins. 

My solution for both WebCT and Moodle is to have my own web pages of the old
fashioned kind lurking somewhere and use frames under both the WebCT and
Moodle structures to allow students to see my contributions.

Originally this was a great solution as we moved from one structure to the
other but I still use it today. If for some reason the server for the Moodle
material is down, I can direct a student to the other server with the old
plain web pages instead.

I would point out that my solution is heavily dependent on my ability to
edit raw html, and the willingness of those in control to create the frames
that make the plan function correctly. It sounds like a house of cards but
it works. I've just finished a lecture this morning and will now make the
power point slides available to my students. I simply copy the file to the
right folder on the web server, and let the web page automatically provide
the link for the file as it does for all files put there. My colleagues are
envious of the simplicity of my solution as making a file available via
Moodle means uploading a file using an interface, creating the appropriate
text for the link and putting t link in the desired place on the Moodle
page. I don't have the patience to deal with that sort of painful
inefficiency.

Jonathan

-----Original Message-----
From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Christine Szostak
Sent: Thursday, 11 August 2011 11:59 p.m.
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Teacher with Vision Loss Teaching Sighted
Undergrads

Hi Ben,
  First, I believe Blackboard is actually just the specific brand as our
university uses a different form, though Blackboard is more well known. It
is simply a website that is used in educational settings in order to allow
for online classroom instruction, interaction, discussion, work, assignment
completing/submitting, grading... It is used by students and faculty alike
and is becoming commonplace at most universities and is also the way most
online educational programs work. Many professors use it to post their
PowerPoint slides, engage students in out-of-class discussion, give exams,
collect written class projects, post grades...

  The one our university uses is actually quite JAWS friendly. I have found
that I can pretty much do everything my classmates can do with it. Since I
have  been a TA for various faculty and since our lab uses it for
undergraduate education purposes, I have had to learn a lot of the teaching
side as well including setting  up the website for the professor... Both
sides are able to be done with JAWS which helps greatly and nearly if not
everything can be done without sighted assistance.

  To be clear, it is not something you would independently use or purchase
since it is mainly  for extending classroom learning to a more virtual
platform.
many thanks,
Christine

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ben Humphreys" <brh at opticinspiration.org>
To: "Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics" 
<blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2011 7:46 AM
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Teacher with Vision Loss Teaching Sighted
Undergrads

> Christine
>
> What is blackboard?  Is it used in the classroom or as a means of 
> assigning and collecting homework?  Is it equally friendly to blind 
> students as well as instructors?
>
> Thank you,
>
> Ben
>
> At 04:45 AM 8/11/2011, you wrote:
>>Hi,
>>  Thanks for the suggestions. I had been thinking about electronic  
>>versions and will most likely go that rout, especially since the 
>>version  of blackboard that our school uses works really well with JAWS.
>>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
>>----- Original Message ----- From: "Pranav Lal" <pranav.lal at gmail.com>
>>To: "'Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics'" 
>><blindmath at nfbnet.org>
>>Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2011 8:48 PM
>>Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Teacher with Vision Loss Teaching Sighted 
>>Undergrads
>>
>>
>>>Christine,
>>>
>>>I have not taught at a university setting so cannot help much with 
>>>grading.
>>>I have taught sighted people before. one technique I use is to create my
>>>lesson as a presentation and run that in class. This ensures that I stay 
>>>on
>>>track and the student's audio visual senses are engaged.
>>>
>>>As for grading, why can't they give you their work in electronic format?
>>>
>>>Pranav
>>>
>>>
>>>_______________________________________________
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>>>Blindmath:
>>>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindmath_nfbnet.org/szostak.1%40os
u.edu
>>
>>
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>
>
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