[Blindmath] [nfbcs] FW: STATA

[Jonathan Godfrey]

Hello,

I have given Stata a very brief try. I looked at it during the 2011 Summer
University. The seminar was run by Bert van Landeghem, himself blind. See
http://www.icchp-su.net/?q=node/31

I know Bert has monitored this list in the past, but it might pay to contact
him directly via the ICCHP pages.

The student wishing to use Stata and Jaws has assumedly been able to obtain
a copy of Stata on their own PC or Jaws on a university one. There are some
licensing issues as Stata is commercial software.

Like some other software, the easiest way to obtain the output from Stata is
by using an output file that is viewed in an internet browser. This
overcomes the inaccessibility/limited usability of the Stata output window.

My assessment of using Stata with Jaws (or any other screen reader) is that
the student should persevere because it is better to work alongside the rest
of the class than to use different software. For the record, I make this
call on only SAS and Stata, but not for Minitab or SPSS which are sort of
useful but painful, while Statistica and Genstat are just too inaccessible
to bother with. I'll look at other software too if a demo can be provided
but haven't had the time or interest to go looking for software that isn't
used in my own country.

Of course, I am feeling duty bound to point out the free alternative. R is
the best software out there and is a very handy back-stop for when the main
option is expensive or inaccessible.

Jonathan