[Blindmath] college math

Fri Jan 29 19:40:45 UTC 2016

Hello,

The National Braille Press (nbp.org) sells "Nemeth Reference Sheets", which is a relatively small one-volume summary of the Nemeth code, for around $15.  Get the Braille addition.

Regards
Louis Maher
Phone: 713-444-7838
E-mail: ljmaher at swbell.net

-----Original Message-----
From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of derek riemer via Blindmath
Sent: Friday, January 29, 2016 11:09 AM
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Cc: derek riemer <Derek.Riemer at Colorado.EDU>
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] college math

Please see in line replies. This is a lot of info. Please don't get overwhelmed.
<snip>
> I am currently using a big nemeth text book, called “Learning the 
> Nemeth Braille code for teachers and students” by Ruth Creg, 
> transcribed in 1991, adopted by Bana in 1987. Are there more condensed 
> materials or better tools for learning nemeth?
For a quick reference to certain things, see this link. I am not sure of any good nemeth resources, your guess is as good as mine.
http://www.gh-mathspeak.com/examples/NemethBook/
Also look for this pdf.
Nemeth Code Made Easy
Christopher Weaver
I can't seem to figure out where I located this originally, and don't know who retains the copyright.
Here is a resource from the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired that I just found. I haven't fact checked the site very well, but I have seen other articles from them before and they are reputable.
http://www.tsbvi.edu/nemeth-code
> What strategies would you recommend to a new nemeth reader for reading math?
>
> I used to look at math visually. I am here for training now at LCB. I 
> am learning nonvisual techniques and I am reading braille with an 
> electronic display.
This is how I do this. If you are doing *any* work with matrices or linear algebra, or even Differential Equations, you need to revert to paper with a perkins braille writer. It is in my experience, just way to hard to do any matrices work with a one dimensional display. Does your school have a braille embosser? If so, you might have them braille homework in hard copy. Other wise, I don't know a good way for them to send you electronic braille, because I don't know how you can digitally read BRF files other than opening them in notepad (not the best option). 
I use my braille display hooked up with NVDA. For receiving materials I have the disability services office convert the materials to mathtype. 
Design science creates this product. 
http://www.dessci.com/en/products/mathtype/ I also often have them generate the materials with mathml. (I technically have them generate it to the mathjax output, and then I use the mathjax menu to get mathml. 
It's under something like math renderer > mathml). I use mozilla firefox for this because it by far will render mathml the best. You have to right click an individual equation once when you first open the page to enable this for all equations. Recent versions of mathjax should have an accessible menu. Use NVDA for this. Install Mathplayer (the beta). See the NVDA users guide section on mathematics. Of all the tools for reading math, NVDA by far does the best job as of now. You might also look at using IOS to read the mathml if you can, because the Math support on IOS is pretty good. If you or a state rehab agency buy Mathtype, you can read math that was written in word. Note that they currently have a nasty bug that prevents you from activating mathtype. 
(you have to do this each time you open mathtype). I don't know if it effects every user or not, but they have known about it for a month or more now and haven't fixed it which is really annoying. Anyhow, you can read math text books distributed to you by your disability services office if they convert them with mathtype. They could alternatively export the material to mathJax or mathml from the publish part of the mathtype addon for word. You won't be able to make annotations in the book if they do this, unless yo you edit the mathml, which is why mathtype integration with NVDA is nice, because you can edit the document in word to ad your own notes or annotations to the texxt.
For editing, I do this. I use nemetex (www.accessisoft.com/nemetex.htm) for converting braille nemeth code to la tex). I then use pdflatex from the command line to generate pdfs. It's disgustingly hard if you're not a computer scientist, because it can give cryptic errors sometimes. (I had an error this year at one point in stats that simply said (4) with no farther explanation). If I hadn't had any experience with debugging code, it would have been the end there. It may be easier to have the disability services office issue an accommodation for a transcriber to verbally transcribe math to print. You basically read the math to the transcriber and they write it in print to paper. If you are doing anything calc or above, do this because nemetex isn't designed for much more than calc 1. Even in stats getting back translation to work was a trick because there are so many odd symbols like \beta and each of them can have capital letters or hats and other things to deal with.  In my upper division classes, I use la tex to write most assignments that are science or math. I sometimes just write the math in la tex to begin with if it isn't overly hard.
You will need good communication with your professor. They will be a lot of help, especially if they know la tex. I often requested a sheet of the equations (especially for stats). see what I am giving you for recommendations for notes and notetakers below. Also, having a reader on tests is really nice, because sometimes the technology just flat out doesn't read the math the way you want, and when you are under a time crunch on a test reverting to a human is really nice. I use a scribe to write my math on tests (usually). It can be tricky after the test to deal with compiling la tex. You can try it, but u should request time to compile the la tex to pdf after the test. This pretty much means that you will have to ensure people trust you to not edit the test afterwords, and it may be a long shot to get this accommodation because it is basically saying give me infinite time to convert the braille to pdf. That is why I have gone with a scribe now. It is easier to do this because I don't have to worry about whether the pdf is visually formatted correctly.
> Since I used to look at an entire problem all at once, now how can I 
> look at a problem in its entirety using nonvisual techniques?
You can request homework either in la tex, or braille. If you get hard copy braille, you have a physical two dimensional paper with the problem. It is nice because the visual layout of the problem is retained. Braille is your friend for understanding the problem. You can try mathtype as well, or use mathml like I mentioned above. It just depends on the situation.
>
> In regards to math text books, I can read text better using audio but 
> then equations are thrown in with the text. What is the best way to 
> handle a math text book? I have had a book with the theory all in one 
> file and then links to separate files with the equations. Is this the 
> best way or are there better techniques?
Now that NVDA supports mathml with the mathplayer software, this works best because you get both audio and braille. I use mathtype for most books so I can annotate things.
>
> how might latex and math ML be used in reading math?
See above for mathml. La tex is basically just learning to read it. It can be ugly. I usually do a replace on the document to remove \left and \right. Other than that it is just a matter of learning la tex. It is really nice to resolve ambiguities, but braille is easier to read (assuming you are farely good at braille). If you have the guts to delve into it, there is a tool called latex-access. It is open source. It is kind of hard to setup. It has NVDA plugins. If you need the matrix browser, I have a modified plugin I wrote that augments the matrix browser to support multiple matrices. I can share it publicly if you like. I requested it get put into latex-access, but that never happened as far as I know. Since it's open source, I guess I could fork it and publish the updated version.
>
> what programs should I use and with which screen readers? I have JAWS, 
> NVDA, iOS, a focus forty braille display, are there better tools?
I am glad you have a 40 cell display. This will help. For reading, see above. For writing, use your braille display to write the math. I use NVDA. I write the math in a text editor. Notepad++ works awesome for this. I use ctrl+d to duplicate the current line. I then go down a line and work from the coppied version. I can elaberate more if you wish on this. The braille you type will appear fine on your braille display, but it will basically be gibberish to a sighted person. I wrote a bunch of speech dictionary entries for NVDA in math, I could share with the community. They aren't perfect and occasionally report non-math as math though.
You can also (and should also) use your braille display to edit la tex. 
Use computer braille when doing all of this. You won't get contractions, but at least it won't abbreviate things that are symbols.
>
> When math problems are read during lectures, what accommodations do I 
> need to request? How do I access handwritten notes from the TA or note 
> taker?
You can have a notetaker that the disability services office trains to use mathtype. They usually either sit with you in class, or are just another student, depending on what you think you need. Don't be afraid to experiment. It may work for you to have a student take notes, it may work better for the ds office to hire someone to take notes as well. It depends on you and if you feel you are getting enough support. If you need someone dedicated to notes and other alt-format, feel free to ask. 
math is extremely visual and many people don't say it correctly. I can't tel you how many times I have heard someone say things like x minus two squared when they mean left paren x minus two right paren squared. This is why I use a notetaker. It is easier for them to write down what they see than for me to expect someone to read all math (especially anything upper division) with no ambiguity. Also, in stats, the distinction between Capital x (X) and lower case x (x) is extremely important. It is hard even for sighted people to know what the professor means, and it is really hard as a professor to always remember to distinguish between the two. I usually make sure the professor understands why I am asking them to try and read things as best as possible, but I don't get uptight if they read it wrong. It is really hard to read math while trying to teach it, especially if the professor isn't naturally used to doing this.
>
> Again, thank you so much for your help.
Yep. Would you mind if I use some of your questions to create a math accessibility FAQ on my website? It might be a good resource to have.
>
> Syed
>
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    Derek Riemer

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