[BlindMath] Advice for blind biomedical engineering student

Mon Jan 24 03:52:45 UTC 2022

Hello Lucas and others,

I know your original question was posed of me, but I've been away from my computer for a few days. While I've been unable to write anything in detail, I've managed to read a few of the responses you've had using my phone.

Some of those comments are quite general in nature, and while I might agree with them, the fact that the discipline of statistics, especially at the postgraduate level, is relatively young and constantly evolving makes it very different to a mathematics course. Even at the higher undergraduate level, statistics courses are using ideas that are less than 20 years old. Huge changes have been made in the software we use, and can expect our undergraduate students to use. As a consequence, topics I learned in my Master's degree papers are now taught in second year courses, while the time used for mathematical/theoretical statistics during the 20th century with a pencil and paper have often been moved from undergraduate courses into graduate level courses. In contrast, my Mathematician colleagues along the corridor are teaching the same undergraduate courses they've taught since I was their student 25 years ago. Why? Because the majority of their material has  its origins in centuries to millennia  past. FYI, my favourite lecturer of all time taught me axiomatic and Euclidean geometry with material spanning nearly 3000 years of history.

A person studying mathematics today would have a high percentage in common with their peers from 1922. They'd be able to solve many of the same problems using the same techniques. In contrast, a student studying statistics today doesn't really have any peers from 1922 to be compared with. However, I'm digressing... 

I have noted your desire to be self-sufficient. It is commendable, but destined to fail if the people who ought to be working with you to make life no harder than necessary aren't heavily involved. I am still not totally independent today, but I strive to be so all the time, and I'm not just talking about academic stuff. Being handed a dusty old textbook that is out of print is about as frustrating to me as those extendable straps used to direct queues in airports. I know they're useful to someone, but that someone is not me.

N.B. I am not referring to the add-on services provided by the Disability Support Office  (whatever it is called) at CMU, but the actual teaching staff who ought to be making sure you are able to access the necessary material, all of which they chose. I think making sure you know which resources are better options, and making sure you know what is going to be needed in six weeks' time is needed. I find the idea that you get given things to read at the last minute unreasonable and therefore unacceptable. That sets you and the support system up to fail.

Now to turn to my own current work for comparison. I don't have to read a lot of papers anymore, but what I do read tends to be relatively recent (say the last ten years) so is available in HTML. I do not need to refer to textbooks that are inaccessible because there is always a free alternative that is in HTML somewhere.  I wouldn't ask my students to wade through something I couldn't read without assistance, unless I had already invested in that assistance some time ago and therefore have comprehensive notes to refer back to. Even if I do read a scanned  paper, I'm not having to read the mathematical detail to know what the authors were thinking and why a lot of the time because their thoughts are written in words not symbols. I can decide if the words were useful enough for me to bother investing in the time required to get to the deepest detail. If I was to read a paper with a proof in it today, and TBH I'm pleased I don't, I'd be reading why that proof was necessary more than how the proof unfolded. I don't need to verify the author's work; that was the job of the editorial process. I need to know why that work was worth publishing.

What I am getting at is that we have choices. It is perfectly reasonable to expect a postgraduate student to find some of the necessary learning material by way of self-directed investigation. I'd suggest using the massive amount of resource that is already accessible in preference to the massive amount that is not accessible. If the course staff chose a book that is inaccessible, ask for alternatives that are already accessible. They might not want to do the searching, but they should be able to verify the value of anything you find. Ask them, "Is this resource worthy of my consideration?" and see if you don't end up helping them evolve their courses.

I hope that helps for a start,
Jonathan

-----Original Message-----
From: BlindMath <blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Lucas Nadolskis via BlindMath
Sent: Saturday, 22 January 2022 7:37 AM
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Lucas Nadolskis <nadol012 at umn.edu>
Subject: Re: [BlindMath] Advice for blind biomedical engineering student

Hello Emily.
I appreciate your email and you sharing my frustration.
However, I believe I haven’t expressed myself correctly, for which I apologize.

The Office for Disability is doing 100% of what they can, indeed I have assistants that are helping me on a lot of things for interpretation of the visual content of classes and materials.
I am working closely with them on building the best access as I can.

My main point is that I like being independent and not need to rely on third parties that may take a long time to make the material accessible.
Me trying to convert the material by myself is a combination of tight deadlines, which my research requires ,and the fact that many papers are posted later during the semester.

I have been very successful on my classes so far, in big part due to their help.
However, when you find a paper that you need to read in a couple of days for a class or a research project it is very hard to have anyone doing it for you unless you have a full time transcriber dedicated only for you.
I am just trying to see if that are alternative ways that I could access these kind of material without anyones help.

I understand that the way I wrote seemed that I was much more frustrated, and again I am sorry for that.

Thank you very much.

Kind regards.

Lucas Nadolskis.

> On Jan 21, 2022, at 10:06 AM, Emily Schlenker via BlindMath <blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi. Unfortunately, I don’t think you’re going to like my advice. The fact is, if a university is large enough to take students, they’re large enough to accommodate all of them with their disability office, and they really need to be taking some more responsibility and relieving you of this burden. what you are going through is 100% unacceptable, and it is not sustainable. At this point, you’re trying to do so many things that are the job of people at your university, that I am not exactly sure where to start to advise you.
> What you most likely will need first and foremost is to meet with the disability office and generate a plan for your accommodations. It is also likely that you will need a sighted assistant to help you with interpreting some of these documents that are not accessible until something else is arranged with braille or screen readable versions.  
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>> On Jan 21, 2022, at 07:46, Lucas Nadolskis via BlindMath <blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Hello Jonathan.
>> Hope this email finds you well.
>> 
>> My name is Lucas Nadolskis.
>> I am currently a masters student in biomedical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.
>> 
>> I have followed some of your emails in BlindMath, and I hope it is okay to send you this private email.
>> 
>> I have studied disciplines related with statistics throughout my life, I got my BS in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota. And I have always faced the general challenges that a totally blind student has on such classes with professors that had never seen a blind student before.
>> 
>> However, since I started my masters I am having difficulties I din’t have previously. Due to the size of CMU their office for disability is much smaller meaning I am doing much of the adaptations myself.
>> 
>> Those challenges include:
>> Conversion of papers heavily related on math content.
>> Accessing the slides from classes.
>> Reading textbooks.
>> Reading extra papers to facilitate understanding of the subject.
>> 
>> I wonder if you would be able to give me any kind of advice on any of these topics?
>> 
>> Thank you vey much.
>> 
>> Kind regards.
>> 
>> Lucas Nadolskis.
>> 
>> 
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> Good luck.
> Emily
> 
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