[humanser] Have any students/university educators used this software?

Thu Dec 31 21:12:51 UTC 2015

Dough,

I've talked to you a bit directly earlier this morning, but you've hit
the nail on the head.  Thanks much for your assistance; exactly why
it's good to use list serves when in doubt.  For some reason I didn't
think I qas qualified to get the inspection copies because I've never
heard of that and honestly don't know much about software, not to
mention I thought it was more geared towards educators.  In any case,
the more you know.  Hopefully we'll be able to find some resolution to
these questions one way or the other soon enough (thankfully, my
classes don't start until quite late in January on the 19th).

Thanks again,

On 12/31/15, Doug Lee <dgl at dlee.org> wrote:
> I see a lot of information on this program at
> http://edu.cengage.co.uk/catalogue/product.aspx?isbn=1111827931
> (You've probably been there already.)
>
> I also see an email address for ordering "inspection copies," and I am
> blind-copying it on this reply (blind
> copy to avoid placing the email address in list archives without
> permission).
>
> For the benefit of the added recipient: This discussion is about use of
> Sniffy the Lab Rat Pro by a blind college student.
> I will follow up with a direct email to discuss means of testing this
> program for usability for a specific student now
> taking a course that will use this application. The rest of this message
> addresses the student's questions as best I can
> before seeing a running copy.
>
> The System Requirements mention that it runs on MacOS and Windows, but the
> supported Windows versions listed
> are old; so my first questions are
>
> 1. Is this to be run in a classroom or lab setting or on student-owned
> machines, and
>
> 2. Are Windows, Mac, or both platforms supported for this class?
>
> Of course, accessibility issues are likely to differ between MacOS and
> Windows platforms. The following
> comments are general and based only on the information at the above web site
> and on my personal experiences as
> an assistive technology programmer:
>
> This program sounds graphical in nature, what with the Skinner box and such;
> but it appears there is also an
> option to run experiments where Sniffy the rat is invisible (and much
> faster, too). If all you need for this
> class is to execute experiments and exercises and gather data, you may be in
> luck. It may also be possible to
> get a copy for accessibility testing, for which reason I am opening a dialog
> with the company.
>
> The page I mentioned does say you can export data to a format readable by
> spreadsheet programs, and I assume
> this includes Excel. That may be enough to let you run an experiment and
> then analyze results using proven
> technologies.
>
> So remaining questions are
>
> 3. Can we get a demo copy of the program for accessibility testing?
>
> 4. Can we get documentation, even if unable to test the software in advance,
> in order to map out required
> usage scenarios for discussion with the authors? Your instructors may also
> be able to give you information on
> the types of tasks the class will require in this application.
>
> If we can get a demo, I can help test it. If we just get docs, I can
> probably help analyze those for clues as
> to where to go next.
>
> On Thu, Dec 31, 2015 at 01:33:00AM -0500, Kaiti Shelton via humanser wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I will be taking a Psychology of Learning course this semester, and
> the professor has just responded to my email regarding accommodations.
> She tells me that part of our assignments will be done using a program
> called Sniffy the Lab Rat Pro (version 3.0 by Wadsworth-Cengage
> Learning).  Sniffy is a simulation of what it is like to train a lab
> rat to perform various tasks, and we have four assignments on it
> spread out through the semester.  I'm planning on calling Cengage to
> see what they can tell me about Sniffy's accessibility, but I'm hoping
> to find information from people who use it with screenreaders so I
> have a better idea of accessibility.  I've emailed on NABS and social
> sciences thus far, and while the social sciences list seems somewhat
> familiar with it, I'm primarily getting a lot of emails that say
> "Sorry, never heard of it either," which aren't really helpful.  If
> anyone on this list has used Sniffy as a student or educator, I'd be
> really interested to hear what your user experience was like.  I'm
> running windows 7 with either Jaws 13 or the latest NVDA version.
>
> Thanks,
> --
> Kaiti Shelton
>
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> --
> Doug Lee                 dgl at dlee.org                http://www.dlee.org
> SSB BART Group           doug.lee at ssbbartgroup.com
> http://www.ssbbartgroup.com
> "The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds
> new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' ('I found it!') but rather 'hmm....
> that's funny...'"  --   Isaac Asimov
>

-- 
Kaiti Shelton
University of Dayton-Music Therapy
President, Ohio Association of Blind Students 2013-Present
Secretary, The National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts
Division 2015-2016

"You can live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back!"