[BlindMath] I'm blind! I love math! I want to go higher than high school geometry.

Fri Sep 15 14:15:44 UTC 2023

Hello,

Concerning text description of graphs, I recently used Be My AI for this
purpose. The process still requires a few steps if you work from a Windows
computer, as you will need to send the graph to your Android or Apple
device, but the description of plots is quite insightful (including
descriptions of line crossings and tangential points) and I was very happy
with the result. I hope such features are soon available to use from a
laptop computer and that automated graph descriptions are further refined.

Kind regards,
Bert

On Fri, 15 Sept 2023 at 15:05, Lucas Radaelli via BlindMath <
blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> Reading your message brings me the thought that I always have:
> we should have more accessible materials so blind people could study math
> on their own.
>
> A combination of html books + mathml + braille + described images should be
> a good start.
>
> Does anyone know if there is a project to adapt many math books like this?
> Bookshare and some other options that I have seen are not universal; they
> only work for the US and other countries would be left out. I think some
> sort of accessible open wiki could be the way.
>
>
>
> HEm sex., 15 de set. de 2023 às 05:08, Ray McAllister via BlindMath <
> blindmath at nfbnet.org> escreveu:
>
> > I don't find your email address anyhwhre,, but I am very good with
> Nemeth.
> > I don't have an embosser of any type, so someone would have to emboss the
> > things and Free-Matter-for-the-Blind them to me.  My email address is
> > raymcal at att.net for private emails.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Ray.
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: BlindMath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of David
> > W.
> > Farmer via BlindMath
> > Sent: Friday, September 15, 2023 7:28 AM
> > To: Ray McAllister via BlindMath
> > Cc: David W. Farmer
> > Subject: Re: [BlindMath] I'm blind! I love math! I want to go higher than
> > high school geometry.
> >
> >
> > Dear Ray,
> >
> > The PreTeXt protect, specifically David Austin and Rob Beezer,
> > is currently working on an accessible version of the book
> > Active Prelude to Calculus.  This includes Nemeth braille and
> > accessible diagrams, with the diagrams having both a tactile
> > representation and a description with words.
> >
> > The level of the mathematics seems appropriate for you, and I am
> > sure they would be happy to have you as a proofreader.  You did
> > not mention whether you can read Nemeth.  I am not sure what type
> > of embosser these diagrams require.
> >
> > If you email me off-group, the four of us can talk about how
> > to proceed.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > David
> >
> >
> > On Fri, 15 Sep 2023, Ray McAllister via BlindMath wrote:
> >
> > > Hi, I'm totally blind, and have loved math and been good at math since
> my
> > > father started teaching me when I was 3 and 4 years old.  I could do
> > > long-hand division problems in my head at age 6.  I won math
> competitions
> > in
> > > high school.  One day, bored, in church, in high school, I figured out,
> > in
> > > my head, how to find the 5 5th roots of a number, using intuition,
> > > completing the square, and the quadratic formula to break x^5 = y^5
> down.
> > > Last year, when I had Covid, I wanted to make sure nothing was
> happening
> > to
> > > my brain, so I started playing with magic square patterns, with inner
> > magic
> > > squares, a border square, basically.  I got up to 10x10 on my own, and
> > then
> > > wrote a computer program to take it up to 1000x1000 which means that I
> > have
> > > this Excel spread sheet here with a list of numbers from 1 to 1 million
> > that
> > > is a magic square, all rows, columns, and diagonals adding up to the
> same
> > > number, with about 40,000 smaller magic squares inside it.
> > >     My path has been rather weird.  While I'm as good at math as many
> > > people are socially, soecially, I'm as dyslexic as most people seem to
> be
> > > with math.  Since higher math wasn't as accessible, as my small high
> > school
> > > didn't offer trig and precalculus, and things weren't as accessible, I
> > ended
> > > up following another passion, ministry, and ultimately got a pH.D. in
> Old
> > > Testament, helping code advanced Hebrew symbols into Braille, which I
> was
> > > part of the team that won the 2016 Bolotin award from the NFB.  Well,
> my
> > > Ph.D. is getting me nowhere now, and my mind, at 48, is beginning to
> turn
> > > toward math again, if anything, for a hobby.  I was able to go onto
> Khan
> > > Academy and go through Trig, and while I can't see the diagrams, I was
> > able
> > > to figure out a number of proofs in my head.  I've had to get my
> student
> > > loans forgiven, so I'm not allowed to take out any more federal loans,
> > and
> > I
> > > wouldn't anyway for any more training.  I'm still wondering what kind
> of
> > > path there could be for me in math, for fun, career, whatever.  I can't
> > > afford any of those fancy graphical embossers.  I'd love to go at least
> > > through Calculus, somehow.  I just work so naturally with numbers.  I
> > feel
> > > so held back by the world that just never seems to move fast enough for
> > me,
> > > if anyone out there understands.
> > >
> > > I have, though, been thinking of a way higher math, at least, at times,
> > > could be described in text for someone who is blind and doesn't have
> all
> > the
> > > fancy equipment.  Sy lrsdy, for trig, has anyone played around the
> > Cartesian
> > > coordinate plane?  If you don't know how that works by the time you
> reach
> > > trig, you're in a lot more trouble than missing triangle images.
> > Basically,
> > > you could say,  We have a triangle, point A is on the origin.  Point B
> is
> > at
> > > (4, 0) and point C is at (1, 7).  Segment a is the line hooking points
> B
> > and
> > > C.  Segment b hooks points A and C.  Segment c hooks points A and B.
> You
> > > can do all kinds of things with this, including run a line segment d
> down
> > > from point C, straight vertically to the X axis to split this into 2
> > right
> > > triangles.  You can, then, write out proofs for things, and the blind
> > reader
> > > need only remember this diagram.  I wrote out a proof for the Law of
> > Sines
> > > using this system, and a couple more points and line segments I had to
> > come
> > > u pwith on Line c. I haven't found any place with Braille books on this
> > > stuff I can access.  Of course, if someone's special ed office hired a
> > > transcriber to transcribe a math book, has anyone thought of finishing
> > the
> > > job and getting it in the National Library Service once the blind
> student
> > is
> > > done with the material?
> > >
> > > I welcome discussion on this.
> > >
> > > Write soon,
> > > Ray McAllister.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
> > > www.avast.com
> > >
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