[Blindmath] Statistics

[Godfrey, Jonathan]

Hi,

There are very few lecturers that can generate a complete lecture of material without any notes. I do find it strange that anyone would still want to write on a board at all, but I guess some people can't find the 21st century. I do use the board to supplement a slide show but there's little to lose by not knowing what I am writing.
In the end, I would go hunting for the source material that my lecturer was using to refer to while he is writing on the board. Practically everyone uses worked examples from paper, not by dragging details out of their head.

With respect to Excel (if you must): the normal distribution uses two functions, one for finding probabilities e.g. =NORM.DIST(1.645,0,1,TRUE) where the arguments are for the quantile, the mean, the standard deviation and the fact that you want the cumulative density function. To get the quantile given a probability, use =NORM.INV(0.9500,0,1) instead. Note I've used mean=0 and sd=1 so that I have a standard normal distribution.

You could generate your own normal tables this way, but note that Excel is giving answers to 7 decimal places for me. Most printed tables use only 2 decimal places for quantiles and 4dp for probabilities.


I think there is a place for good tactile images for showing blind people what we are trying to show our sighted audience. I'm far from convinced that tactile images can be used to give a blind person enough information to reliably answer questions that sighted people take for granted when they are able to read a printed graph. On my to-do list is a set of what I hope will be good tactile images. I want them in a form that is suitable for embossing on decent embossers, and I'm also wanting to go 3d as well.
 
Jonathan





-----Original Message-----
From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Zachary Mason via Blindmath
Sent: Monday, 19 September 2016 9:20 a.m.
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
Cc: Zachary Mason
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Statistics

I'd be interested also for any suggestions to this response as I'm also in a little bit of a pickle in my statistics to class. I have a BRF file that is a Z score table if you would like.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Sep 18, 2016, at 2:30 PM, Sabra Ewing via Blindmath <blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
> I need a streamlined way to be able to read my statistics homework. I 
> know that a lot of you have solutions that use millions of programs. 
> My class is Auditorium sized, this is my last math class, and he is 
> used to hand writing everything and posting it by taking pictures. I 
> know how I used to read my homework, but I don't know what the 
> terminology is for it. I got some practice problems, and I'm going to 
> see if I can read them. I told him that I could read it if he writes 
> it the same way he would tell XL to do it, but I don't know what the 
> name of it is. For example, if you are writing a computer program, and 
> that program involves using a statistical formula, that is how I would 
> read it. I also need to know where to find an accessible electronic Z 
> score table or if one exists in XL. I'm also getting some tactile 
> pictures, but I don't know if they will help. I have never been able 
> to read a tactile picture before unless it has been very simple, so is 
> there any resources I c
 a!
> n use that can help me get the information without the pictures if it turns out that I can't understand them? Thanks.
>
> Sabra Ewing
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