[BlindMath] Seeking guidance for Discrete Mathematics

Thu Sep 3 01:30:08 UTC 2026

Thank you! Your suggestions were very helpful.

Hoping to learn a lot from everyone of you over the period of time.

Thanks

Arushi

From: Haylee Mota <haylee9803 at gmail.com> 
Sent: Monday, August 31, 2026 11:50 PM
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Cc: M Aru <sheratalmi at gmail.com>; avery ingram <avery8ingram at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [BlindMath] Seeking guidance for Discrete Mathematics

Arushi,

When you're in Thorium and within a book, if you go to settings, there is an option that says enable MathJax. It is a checkbox, and it is close to the bottom of the settings window. Maybe try toggling this setting and see if the math reads.

Best,

Haylee

On Mon, Aug 31, 2026 at 8:20 PM avery ingram via BlindMath <blindmath at nfbnet.org <mailto:blindmath at nfbnet.org> > wrote:

Hello,

Thanks for giving me the ISBN. That was really helpful, and I just tried out the book. I might have to get on a call with you to know exactly what's going wrong, but I have some initial thoughts.

There are at least two problems you're dealing with here, unfortunately. One is that the Bookshare book writes things like a subscript n as a space n, so no matter what settings are active, I don't think there's a way to read it 100% reliably with just audio. I actually think this is something you could get around with practice and math knowledge.

The other problem is that JAWS doesn't read math as well as a human would. The best thing you can do in the short-term is to have someone look at the print book and help you understand what it should be saying. I might be able to help to an extent, if you want to call or email me directly. It will also help somewhat to set the JAWS punctuation to all. To do that, alt tab to JAWS, then press alt, go to voices, then voice adjustment, tab to punctuation, choose all, and tab to ok and press enter.

You have a few options, probably even more I'm not considering. One is to have your VR agency hire a tutor for you. They might try to get you to accept a reader/scribe, but in fields like this, I'd argue that you need a tutor specifically because the material is so complex. In addition to that, don't hesitate to use other resources your college has, and ask if you can get extra office hours with your professor for help understanding the concepts. I don't know if you are already, but your university should be paying for you to get a course assistant while you're in class.

Using AI for the print, electronic textbook is another option. I believe MathPix is the most accurate, but I haven't tried it out yet.

This might seem unappealing, but it's worth considering, and I'm not necessarily saying you need to do this. You could explain the situation to your professor, VR counselor, and Disability Resource Office. You'd say that you tried your best, but can't complete the course now. Don't say it like you're blaming anyone, because then they'll get defensive. Ask what options you have, like withdrawing from the class, getting an incomplete for now, and if any exceptions can be made. The main reason this is worth considering now is that if you wait until you've received the grade after the course ends, it would be impossible or much harder to get that to work, so doing this sooner could protect your GPA.

No matter which option you choose, I'd recommend learning more Braille and other codes as time goes on. Knowing Nemeth or UEB Math will make reading math and doing scratch work much easier. Learning computer Braille will make programming easier. Learning LaTeX will make a few things easier. It sounds intimidating, but I have no doubt you can learn them. Which codes do you know now? I also think just learning a few, basic Nemeth symbols now could help a lot with being able to read the discrete math book.

Best of luck, and please don't hesitate to reach out if you have more questions. You should be proud of the effort you've put into the class, considering the access you've had to the resources you need. It takes everyone time to figure these things out.

Best,

Avery

On Aug 31, 2026, at 7:00 PM, Aru M <sheratalmi at gmail.com <mailto:sheratalmi at gmail.com> > wrote:

Hi Avery,

Thank you! I really appreciate your willingness to help me out here.

I have downloaded the book Discrete Mathematics and Applications by Kenneth Rosen (ISBN: 9781259731280) from Bookshare in Epub format and tried in the Thorium app but the Math content is not read correctly. Is there any setting on your machine that enables the Thorium reader to read it properly? 

Jaws many a times said Math content but never read any further, so your suggestions are really helpful.

I have a APH Mantis Q40, but have not yet attempted to read the math content with this as I am less familiar with Nemeth. 

Best, 
Arushi

From: avery ingram <avery8ingram at gmail.com <mailto:avery8ingram at gmail.com> >
Sent: Sunday, August 30, 2026 4:59 PM
To: M Aru <sheratalmi at gmail.com <mailto:sheratalmi at gmail.com> >
Cc: blindmath at nfbnet.org <mailto:blindmath at nfbnet.org>  <blindmath at nfbnet.org <mailto:blindmath at nfbnet.org> >
Subject: Re: [BlindMath] Seeking guidance for Discrete Mathematics

Hello,

I'm very impressed by your level of dedication. Trying all the methods people recommended is a fantastic sign about your ability to succeed, and for people like me trying to help you, makes it much easier. Some people are too busy or do not have the knowledge to be able to do this, so this is not critical of them, but please feel free to reach out to me on or off list if I might be able to assist you in the future.

Did you download Handbook of Discrete and Combinatorial Mathematics, or the exact book your class is using? I downloaded the combinatorial one, since it's publisher quality, but I can test the other one out if that will not work.

I tested out a few things in sections 3.4 and 3.5. Some numerical things say math content, and others don't, especially if they're more simple. If something says math content, you can press enter on it. After you press enter, using left and right arrows will make it a bit easier to understand the math that's being spoken. If you're using a Braille display that's 40 cells or wider, that should be especially helpful for reading the Braille. If you don't have one, I'd recommend telling your college's disability resource office, or VR agency, like a commission for the blind, that you absolutely need them to buy you one in order for you to be able to access the materials necessary for your class, and to do coding with fewer errors.

Publisher quality books are the best Bookshare has, and they tend to be great overall, but they vary and aren't quite as good as some books on OpenStax or in PreTexT in terms of a screen reader being able to read them. For example, the PreTexT books will probably give you the ability to hit down arrow to learn more about the smaller expressions in an equation, in a way that isn't quite working for this book. But if you need this book or a very similar one to line up with what the instructor teaches, this might be the best option.

Best of luck with your studies,

Avery

On Aug 30, 2026, at 7:37 AM, Aru M <sheratalmi at gmail.com <mailto:sheratalmi at gmail.com> > wrote:

Hello all,

I really appreciate the suggestions provided by all of you.

I got the subscription for ChatGPT and will be looking forward to leverage it for my learning.

I looked into the two books through the link in the email and they seem to be covering almost everything that may be taught as part of this subject. They are very much accessible and therefore, be tremendously helpful in learning the concepts.

A sighted person looked into the textbook in Word format (opened in Microsoft Word) but the equations are in text format only and therefore, special Math notations are gone. I was hoping that the equations would be in Equation Editor then I can use it but unfortunately not.

Thanks for suggestion about the Thorium app. I opened the EPUB version of the book in the app and it is also not correctly reading the Math content though the content is rendered correctly. I enabled the screen reader optimization for the book but it didn't helped. Is there any setting that I need to do to enable correct Math reading?

Thanks
Arushi

-----Original Message-----
From: BlindMath <blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org <mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org> > On Behalf Of avery ingram via
BlindMath
Sent: Saturday, August 29, 2026 10:58 PM
To: blindmath at nfbnet.org <mailto:blindmath at nfbnet.org> 
Cc: avery ingram <avery8ingram at gmail.com <mailto:avery8ingram at gmail.com> >
Subject: Re: [BlindMath] Seeking guidance for Discrete Mathematics

Hello,

I have a solution that might work. The book Handbook of Discrete and
Combinatorial Mathematics, from the same author, seems to be publisher
quality, so it should render a lot better. The book might be really similar,
but you could ask a TA to tell you which parts correspond to your class's
book.

If you get the free Thorium app on your computer, and download the book in
epub format, it should work especially well. I think this book has images.
Whenever you're on an equation or image, you should be able to use picture
smart AI with JAWS. To do that, have your cursor on the image, then press
JAWS key with space, then p, then shift with c. It might not give you the
best description, but if you ask it a follow-up question and include context
you remember about the image or equation, it should give you a great
description. Best of luck.

Avery

On Aug 29, 2026, at 3:51 PM, Aru M via BlindMath <blindmath at nfbnet.org <mailto:blindmath at nfbnet.org> >
wrote:

Hello,

I am a sophomore at Purdue University studying Computer Science and seeking
guidance in successfully navigating one of the subjects that I am currently
struggling in.

The subject is CS-182. Though, it says Computer fundamentals but it is
essentially discrete math covering topics like Logic, proofs,  sets,
functions, complexity, induction, recursive algorithms, finite automata,
graphs. Semester has just started but I can feel the heat.

The assigned textbook "Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications" by Kenneth
H. Rosen is available on Bookshare.org but on downloading in all the
possible formats available there, I find that none of them is truly
accessible and even wonder if it shows the correct information. The Math
equations are not read correctly.

I rely completely on JAWS on the Windows laptop and haven't used braille in
past many years. For the Math content, I use Equations Editor on Microsoft
Word to read the problems and solve them.

The DRC department at the university provides me the lecture notes and other
related content in MS Word but I need something to read to understand the
concepts like textbook in this case.

I was wondering if anyone here faced something similar and found any
workaround.

Looking forward to any suggestions that you might deem helpful.

Best regards,
Arushi
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