[BlindMath] answering problems by showing work

[Sabra Ewing]

The Pearson equation editor will also do what you want. Some people also use math-based markup languages. I am pretty surprised at the complexity of the solutions some people have come up with, but I just took math classes to get my degree. I suppose that if you were really into it, it would make more sense to learn mark up languages and do all that stuff. However, a student should not go through all that who is only going to take a few classes. Students should not have to go through it all regardless of their level of investment, but the stim technology available to blind people is very far behind and very primitive. I wonder about all of the advancements and discoveries we could make if we actually tried to be cutting edge? Sadly, I have lost some of my Nimeth skill because I have been doing math and computer braille for so long. Computer braille translated the easiest and to print, and I started using it because in elementary school, I needed to do math with a portable note taker. I could not do math on a Perkins Brailer because there is a shortage of braille instructors and we decided it would be best for my braille instructor to provide me instruction and adapt my materials instead of spending so much time transcribing my work. At that time, computer grill was the only solution I knew of that would translate into print. It did not look exactly the same as the west side person would write it, but reading it was easy for me. Sighted people could have trouble with it at times though because it is laid out in a linear format and not spacially. In elementary school, due to the difficulty of receiving blindness instruction coupled with the normal things other people deal with like a sided teacher not knowing how to teach a blind student, I was struggling to read, write, and do math. I was not going to be learning a markup language at that time. I could not even practiced reading with an adult because they did not know braille. They had a print copy to follow along with, but that did not help. I got better blindness instruction once I moved to a larger school district, but I was in fifth grade by that time. Before that, I was in a small school district that could not provide very good blind this instruction and their solution was to keep me in their special education class where I got farther behind. This was pretty bad for me because I tested as intellectually gifted in the new district. That is neither here nor there though. I'm just saying that even though a lot of people on here are using markup languages and complicated software solutions, that may not work for everybody. I could probably learn a markup language now, but I am not in any math classes anymore and I would probably only do it if I needed to for work.

Sabra Ewing

> On Apr 5, 2018, at 2:29 PM, Joseph Polizzotto via BlindMath <blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Keep an eye on Math Editor by Benetech:
> 
> https://matheditor-qa.diagramcenter.org
> 
> Sue-Ann Ma (Benetech) and Dr. Neil Soiffer, formerly of Deisgn Science, demonstrated its use at CSUN recently and it looks really good.
> 
> Last I checked, they were still requesting beta testers:
> 
> http://blog.diagramcenter.org/?p=2873
> 
> Contact Sue-Ann Ma for more information.
> 
> HTH,
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Joseph Polizzotto
> HTCTU Instructor
> 
> 
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