[Blindmath] Calculus for blind students

[John Gardner]

Hello Ben, I don't have all the answers, but I have some.  See below, my
comments start with JAG:


-----Original Message-----
From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Ben Humphreys
Sent: Monday, August 15, 2011 8:18 AM
To: blindmath at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Blindmath] Calculus for blind students

Hello,

As a formerly sighted college student, I now find myself in the 
position of returning to school  for a graduate degree and as part of 
that process, I must take 3 semesters of calculus.  I wanted to reach 
out to folks on this list to find out what works and what doesn't.  I 
seem to have discovered a lot of dead-ends when it comes to 
accessible math technology and I'd like to cut to the chase and find 
out what's currently available and working.

So here are a few resources I've found which look promising and a few 
that didn't:

1.  The text Essential Calculus is available from Learning Ally as a 
Daisy Download. I believe this is the text used by my 
university.  Can I expect the Learning Ally version to be read by a 
human?  Are the figures and graphs described verbally?
JAG: Yes, these are all human-read, and the quality varies all over the
place, because these humans are volunteers.  They do describe important
drawings, and some people can do it well.  Most cannot.

2.  Latex looks interesting as a way to write and print calculus 
problems.  The edsharp editor has a mode for reading latex formulas 
in a more friendly manner than the actual latex code.  I envision 
using this solution to do homework problems and exams, with the 
benefit of a portable printer or by e-mailing the instructor either 
the latex file or a PDF of the rendered output.

3.  I have a Tiger Viewplus Spotdot embosser which I can use to make 
tactile graphics, provided I can get those graphics as a PDF or 
web-pageor similar.
JAG: Don't despair.  If you can also get IVEO, you should be able to access
most math graphics.  See articles on graphics on the accessibility page of
www.access2science.com.  Contact me off-list if you have other questions.


4.  MathReader for reading MathML markup has so far been a bust.  It 
appears to only work with IE6 and IE7, now unavailable.  Too bad as 
this would have given me the ability to render latex formulas to a 
format readable by both myself and my instructors.
JAG: MathPlayer new version is available in beta form and should be released
soon.  Will work with IE9.

5.  The Calculus for Blind students developed by CUNY and Professor 
Albert Blank seems to have been promising back in the late 1990s but 
many of their solutions, such as use of the Nomad tablet and Aster's 
audio rendering of math content seem to no longer be maintained or
available.

6.  As to the Nemeth code, I'm currently learning grade I braille as 
a 40-something which is obviously hard enough without the benefit of 
a plastic brain such as possessed by a typical elementary school 
child.  So learning grade II then Nemeth is probably going to take 
quite a while longer than I want to delay my studies for.  If 
possible, I'd like to rely on audio and electronic solutions as much 
as practical.
JAG: For good braille readers, Nemeth is essential.  If you are an audio
learner, you can do it with speech.  By the way, you can use MS Word and
write equations in Latex that are then accepted by MathType.  Another
article in Access2Science.

7.  What, if any, is the current state-of-the-art solution for 
learning calculus as a newly blind student with a good, though dated, 
background in math?  I wonder if there are courses specifically 
designed for this that I could take at an online university and then 
transfer to my school instead of reinventing the wheel?
JAG: Some courses are friendlier than others, but I am certainly not aware
of any on-line course designed for blind students.

Any solutions and encouragement greatly appreciated.