[Blindmath] moving diagonally on a graph

[Mary Woodyard]

I am a parent who has started reading this discussion group because I have a
vision impaired 9th grader in Georgia who is taking an integrated math
curriculum this year.  I do not understand all of what I am reading - but it
is clear that we both need to become more proficient with Math Assistive
Technology for him to be successful in 10th grade math.  After reading the
last posting, I wanted to throw out for consideration the graphing high
school classroom requirements with Parallelograms and the Pythagorean
Theorem.  My son has been doing a coordinate geometry unit for the last 6
weeks that has been most challenging.  All of the triangle standards involve
moving diagonally on a graph.  

 

He has missed several summative test questions on mid-points and distance of
points from each other because he misread the beginning graph coordinates.
We have fixed the contrast on the tests, so this should not be a problem
going forward.  With the implementation of the National Curriculum Core that
49 states are implementing,  this distance and midpoint standard is moving
to 8th grade.  This also presents a calculator challenge for VI students as
none of the Scientific Calculators that are currently available simplify
radicals.  Because the formula for distance is probably going to end up with
a radical - this is a void that needs to be corrected so vi students can be
successful in middle and high school curriculum.  Although simplifying
radicals can be done manually part of the time - a lot of my son's
curriculum requirements have asked for the answer to be converted from a
radical to hundredths - and this is much easier with a scientific
calculator.

 

We did look at using the TI emulation software for the TI SX30 which is the
calculator that my son's school has standardized on.  However, the school
said that it was cumbersome and required constant updates so he just uses
the TI SX30 under a CCTV when he needs to simplify radicals and a TI-36X
Orion for the other Statistics and Algebra requirements.  These
Parallelogram and Triangle standards are probably going to be much harder as
he progresses through high school.   One last thing to consider for students
as they use tools for high schools is that schools typically will not allow
students to use a tool unless they can be College Board Approved.  The Orion
TI-36X did get College Board and EOCT approved for my son.  Some of the IPAD
aps and other types of tools are helpful to learn with - but a school may
not allow the student to use on a test.