[Blindmath] Performing calculations as a blind students, tips, tricks and advice for the NFB Youth Slam

Wed Jul 13 14:27:50 UTC 2011

I'm not blind, and it has been almost 50 years since I received my
engineering degrees, but I have been mentoring a blind STEM student for a
couple of years and I have some unconventional suggestions.

The first suggestion is the use of the Google calculator for performing
calculations. My student does well with it using a screen reader and a USB
Braille display. If I were a physics or engineering student, blind or
sighted, I would consider it to be a major asset. One of its main strengths
is its ability to accept and use units such as meters, newtons, Joules, etc.

My biggest complaint is that when it displays an exponent, it uses a
superscript character instead of "^x" and I don't know how that character
plays in screen readers and Braille displays. Here is an example of what I
mean by that.

Input:
6 m/sec^2/3

Output
*(6 (m / (sec^2))) / 3 = 2 m / s2*
In case you can't read it, the final two characters in the output are a
lower-case "s" followed by the exponent "2". Perhaps someone should lobby
Google to make the output from the calculator totally accessible to blind
students.

My other suggestion has to do with the use of JavaScript. With a rudimentary
knowledge of JavaScript programming, a blind student can write scripts to
solve algebra, trigonometry, physics, and engineering problems. In addition
to providing an accessible way to perform the calculations, this approach
also gives students the opportunity to organize their thoughts and organize
the solution to the problem in a beneficial way.

My blind physics student does very well with this approach also.

By using these two tools, my blind physics student doesn't have any
difficulty performing the calculations necessary to solve physics problems.
Her main difficulty is understanding the requirements of the problem as a
result of an inaccessible physics textbook.

If you are interested in more information on this, see

http://cnx.org/content/col11294/latest/

Dick Baldwin

On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 8:57 PM, John Gardner <john.gardner at orst.edu> wrote:

> Hello Birker, it is certainly possible to solve algebraic equations using
> Latex notation, but that is pretty verbose and clumsy.  As is just about
> every other standard notation.  Most blind people who have to do this sort
> of thing seem to invent their own shorthand. Even people who work in
> braille
> often use shortcuts instead of official Nemeth.
>
> For years after losing my sight, I used an abbreviated form of Latex for
> working out algebraic equations.  It worked but was pretty clumsy.  My
> group
> developed WinTriangle with the purpose of reducing notation to a minimum,
> and I used that for a while too.  It was really nice, having single
> keystrokes for many common symbols such as Greek letters, integral sign,
> raised symbols for superscripts, dropped symbols for subscripts, etc.  It
> was the most compact way I have ever seen for writing math on a computer.
> Unfortunately, Triangle also had disadvantages, and they have meant that it
> is no longer a viable thing with modern OS.  ChattyInfty is not quite as
> compact as WinTriangle, but it is pretty close.  I would recommend it as
> the
> best alternative that I know for writing and developing math equations on a
> computer.  Among other benefits, you can cut, copy, and paste parts of
> equations.  And copy them into separate files for pasting in a number of
> times.  That's a great advantage when working with complicated equations.
>
> Good luck with your tutorial.
>
> John
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org]
> On
> Behalf Of Birkir R. Gunnarsson
> Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2011 5:11 PM
> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
> Subject: [Blindmath] Performing calculations as a blind students, tips,
> tricks and advice for the NFB Youth Slam
>
> Hey yea wise people.
>
> I am giving a presentation to the NFB Youth Slam students next week on
> math accessibility and issues to deal with in college.
> There has been a lot of talk and a lot of resources on reading math,
> and not insignificantly, to writing math as well.
> However one thing I feel often gets lost in the mix is techniques for
> actually performing calculations and working one's way through
> equations in order to find a solution i.e. the calculation part
> itself.
> I have some experience of course, but I'd be curious to hear what
> works for people around here, especially VI or blind folks who have
> completed STEM degrees in college.
> Did you use LaTeX, Nemeth or some other code to write your way through
> each step in the process of solving your calculations?
> If not, how did you do it?
> Is some software particularly useful for those (anyone remember
> Derive? It was a dos software and it saved my behind quite a lot in
> high school and college, but I am not even sure it is available any
> more, and it was too powerful for some things).
> I want to devote a few minutes to this in my presentation, but I am
> having trouble finding material that is not just based on my own
> experience.
> Any input is more than welcome.
> Cheers
> -B
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blindmath mailing list
> Blindmath at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindmath_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> Blindmath:
>
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindmath_nfbnet.org/john.gardner%40or
> st.edu
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blindmath mailing list
> Blindmath at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindmath_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> Blindmath:
>
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindmath_nfbnet.org/baldwin%40dickbaldwin.com
>

-- 
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/