[nabs-l] A blind Fulbright grantee's question

Sean Whalen smwhalenpsp at gmail.com
Wed May 11 18:46:20 UTC 2011


As eager as I was to point out the many advantages of electronic texts, I
think anybody who thinks that human readers are never a better option must
be doing course work in only a limited range of subjects. For advanced math,
economics, statistics, sciences, and others, human readers to describe
diagrams, tables, graphs and other visual elements are valuable tools. Of
course you can get by without them, just as you can get by without etexts if
you wish, but why would one choose to? They are two distinct tools, each
with their own particular advantages and disadvantages. The question of
which is better is meaningless without being placed in the context of the
specific task one is trying to perform. Neither is absolutely necessary.
Both are extremely useful.

 

And, Kirt, I had plenty of excellent readers in college, but virtually all
of them were simply classmates who I studied with and used as readers and
were not provided by DSS. Certainly there are good and bad readers in
volunteer programs. The "reader" the LSAC tried to give me for the LSAT,
well, now that is another story. No redeeming qualities there!

 

Sean

 

 




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