[Blindmath] Making the University classroom more accessible
Goda Biekšaitė
goda.bieksaite at gmail.com
Thu Nov 5 17:19:01 UTC 2015
Please, if there are any experiences that anyone could share - that would
be great! Any feedback would be of great help!
Cheers,
Goda
2015-11-05 17:16 GMT+00:00 Goda Biekšaitė <goda.bieksaite at gmail.com>:
> Hi Vincent!
>
> Thank you so much for the reply. I suppose our description of what we do
> or where we are in the project is not clear.... Sorry about that.
> Basically, since all of us in the team are sighted, we tried and reach out
> to students that are visually impaired and schools, but we had such a low
> response rate. And as the lady in our chemistry faculty has said - there's
> a lot of research fatigue. And we fully understand it. However, we really
> want to try and understand the problem. And...a silly and as ignorant as
> this will sound, we genuinely don't know how visually impaired students
> understand geometry and graphs, 2d and 3d objects. And without having
> anyone to talk to...we had to rely on the internet. And that is why our
> questionnaire is so broad.
>
> In regards of what we're trying to achieve. We are not trying to create a
> new tech solution. We are well aware that creating a new piece of
> technology is not the solution, as that is yet another thing to master, to
> get used to, to implement an it's just not financially feasible either.
> What we would aim to do is find a way to improve current technology or
> software or adapt something to a current software. For example, to aid in
> understanding chemical molecule diagrams, one of our university researchers
> created a system as a plugin for JAWS and NVDA to translate a bitmap image
> of the molecule graph into a multilayer audible system. It's not something
> new but a small addition to what already exists. We are aiming to do
> something similar.
>
> If you could give us any feedback at all. Of what it feels like to be a
> visually impaired student doing a science degree, what frustrated you or
> anything at all that you could tell - that would greatly help us! Also
> this is just... It literally made us jump from excitement that we have
> replies! We possibly have people to talk to!!!
>
> Cheers,
> Goda
>
> 2015-11-05 16:37 GMT+00:00 vincent martin <vincent.martin at gatech.edu>:
>
>> Hello,
>> I am a totally blind Ph.D. student in Human Centered Computing at Georgia
>> Tech. I have previously earned four STEM degrees. I have worked as a
>> rehabilitation engineer and research scientist and have advise a number of
>> undergraduate and graduate level teams on similar projects. The first
>> thing I always advise the teams to do is a very thoroughly literature
>> review. As a graduate student doing research, it would be the first thing
>> you would normally consider, but most undergraduates have never been taught
>> how or why to do it.
>> What you are asking in your survey is far too wide of a scope to assist
>> you. You can end up going in so many directions and may end up recreating
>> the exact thing that someone just did a few months ago. You can search the
>> Journal of the Visually Impaired and the Blind, ACM's SIG Access (ASSETS)
>> and the SIGCHI (CHI) journals for a vast number of projects related to
>> creating access for people with visual disabilities.
>> You can also just use any search engine for search words pertaining to
>> this topic and the browser will give you many directions to go int. So
>> many products/projects end up on some news program, but really are just
>> class projects created for a class for too many times to count.
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Goda
>> Biekšaite via Blindmath
>> Sent: Thursday, November 5, 2015 10:23 AM
>> To: blindmath at nfbnet.org
>> Cc: Goda Biekšaitė <goda.bieksaite at gmail.com>; Lily Elshaktori <
>> lilyelshaktori at gmail.com>; Priyanka Mohata <pmohata.95 at gmail.com>;
>> Gareth Humphries <garethjhumphries at gmail.com>; Poppie Simmonds <
>> poppie.leigh at gmail.com>
>> Subject: [Blindmath] Making the University classroom more accessible
>>
>> Hello all,
>>
>>
>> We are 3rd year Computer Science students at the University of Birmingham.
>> As part of our course, we are studying a module called Software Design
>> Study, in which we research and design a solution to an existing real life
>> problem. Our team is looking into further aiding visually impaired students
>> in a classroom setting.
>>
>> We are in the early stages of our research and would like to speak with
>> as many visually impaired students, teachers of the visually impaired or
>> anyone else who works in this area.We would like to get a better
>> understanding of learning and teaching techniques used, problems faced and
>> areas for improvement.
>>
>>
>> We have made a questionnaire and it would help us greatly if you could
>> answer some or all of the questions, and if there is anything that you
>> would like to add, or even if you would just want to share your experience
>> - we would really appreciate it.
>>
>>
>> We can't wait to hear from you,
>>
>> Goda
>>
>>
>> Questions:
>>
>>
>> If you’re a student:
>>
>> -
>>
>> What software are you using in the classroom currently?
>> -
>>
>> How accessible is it?
>> -
>>
>> How easy to master is it?
>> -
>>
>> On average, how much time do you spend using the assistive software
>> in the classroom?
>> -
>>
>> Did you go to a school or university for visually impaired?
>> -
>>
>> IF YES:
>> -
>>
>> What techniques did they use to teach mathematics?
>> -
>>
>> How did they explain the different geometrical objects? Both 3d
>> and 2d.
>> -
>>
>> How did they explain graphs and visual representations of
>> formulae?
>> -
>>
>> What techniques are used to draw and represent graphs?
>> -
>>
>> IF NO:
>> -
>>
>> What techniques did the teachers use to integrate visually
>> impaired into the classroom?
>> -
>>
>> Did the teachers write and explain things on the board, if so how
>> did they accommodate you?
>> -
>>
>> Did you have anyone or use any special technology to assist you
>> in
>> the classroom?
>> -
>>
>> Was there anything that you think you missed out in the
>> lectures/lessons?
>> -
>>
>> If you could change one thing about how the lectures are going at the
>> moment and the support that you get - what would it be?
>> -
>>
>> What would be a perfect piece of technology for you (regardless of what
>> has been created already. Please. Go wild)
>>
>>
>> If you’re a teacher:
>>
>> -
>>
>> What techniques have you used to better accommodate the visually
>> impaired students?
>> -
>>
>> What difficulties have you noticed that visually impaired students
>> encounter?
>> -
>>
>> What subjects and areas do the students struggle the most?
>> -
>>
>> What support systems/technologies do you use in your classroom or for
>> preparation for the classes?
>> -
>>
>> What additional preparation do you make to cater for visually impaired
>> students in the classroom?
>> -
>>
>> How familiar are you with the assistive technologies that the students
>> might use?
>> -
>>
>> How did you explain (if you ever had to) graphs, geometric forms, 3d
>> and
>> 2d objects, trajectories and distances?
>> -
>>
>> What support do you get from your University or School/College?
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