[BlindMath] Statistical Software Issues?

[Godfrey, Jonathan]

Hello all,

I keep track of the accessibility of many statistical software applications at:
https://r-resources.massey.ac.nz/statsoftware/

I question the comment made about the "total inaccessibility" of Stata and SPSS. There are blind people out there using each of these applications quite happily on a regular basis. I accept that neither is "totally accessible" but aside from R and SAS, I suggest that nothing else comes close to being accessible. 

R is open source, cross platform statistical software that is both a data analysis environment and a programming language. All work is done using commands that are just plain text (accessible) and output is either text for numeric data (accessible), or the graphs that are as inaccessible as any software creates. I will demonstrate how we can make more accessible graph content at the NFB Convention at a specially organized seminar day on July 10. On top of that, R can be operated in a variety of ways to suit the user's needs. The standard GUI version is a bit clunky as a jaws user but less so for NVDA users; the terminal version is better for jaws users in contrast. R is being used successfully by blind people on all major platforms. We even have an email list for blind R users.

I accept that R has its steep learning curve, but that's the same for SAS too, and the learning curve for us is no steeper than it is for a sighted person. Tutorials for using R will be offered at the NFB Convention next month at no additional cost for Convention attendees. Please note: My attendance at the Convention this year is funded by a grant from the NZ Government. I feel I was very lucky to gain this funding so it is very unlikely that I will be offering these tutorials next year. I believe the cost of coming to Convention would be an investment in your future for many reasons, but if use of statistical software is a key component of your education or employment pathway then bring your laptop to Convention. Your trip to Orlando would be a lot cheaper than a trip to New Zealand, but if you want a one to one session down here then I recommend travelling in February when it is usually warm.

For those list members living in Europe, I will be in Roosendaal in the Netherlands on July 7th and 8th to be part of the second Blind Science Conference. I'll be talking about R there of course. 

Jonathan



-----Original Message-----
From: BlindMath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Umair Ijaz via BlindMath
Sent: Sunday, 25 June 2017 8:58 p.m.
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
Cc: Umair Ijaz
Subject: Re: [BlindMath] Statistical Software Issues?

will you people elucidate what is r? because I am also an M.phil scholar and have found spss and stata totally inaccessible and hence use sighted assistance. what r and python can do?

On 6/25/17, Bill Dengler via BlindMath <blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> R is Excessive bull if You Use The commandline Version.
>
> Bill
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Jun 25, 2017, at 00:00, Justin Young via BlindMath 
>> <blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> Hope this message finds you well!  I was wondering if any of you on 
>> this mailing list have experience attempting to use Statistical 
>> software like SPSS or Minitab for academic course work or research?
>> If so, what have your experiences been?  I know it has its 
>> inaccessibility issues and I wanted to hear from other users 
>> experiences.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Justin Young
>>
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-- 

www.umairijaz.com

"A Person who won't read has no advantage over who can't read"

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