[nabs-l] Locating a standard normal distribution table

[Arielle Silverman]

Hi Angelina and all,
If you'd like to have a Braille copy of the normal distribution, I
agree with others' suggestions to contact APH. You can also write to
Bookshare support and ask if that is something they have already
prepared in Braille, or if they have Braille copies of any statistics
textbooks which include the table. Getting a new stats textbook
Brailled can take a while, but if it's already been done then you
should be able to just request a copy. I will contact a friend of mine
who works for BookShare and see if she knows anything about these
tables because I am curious myself.
However, as someone who has taken multiple stats courses I think for
most class and real-world purposes, a Braille table is not necessary-I
never had access to one. For almost all assignments you will only need
either an electronic version of the table or a calculator to identify
critical values. Excel can calculate critical values for the
Z-statistic, which I think is what you are looking for. I don't know
the formula offhand but if you go to the insert formula wizard and
type in "normal distribution" you should be directed toward the right
formula. Then, if you are asked to find the value that is, say, in the
63rd percentile, you can enter .63 into the formula and it will give
you the number. If what you're doing is something other than
Z-statistics, let me know and I'll see if there's an Excel formula for
it. You can also simply type "normal distribution table" into Google
and you should get tons of hits. If you use JAWS, you can use
control-alt-arrow to move up, down, right, and left in the table.
Failing all this, working with a reader is also an option.
Best,
Arielle

On 2/15/12, Ashley Bramlett <bookwormahb at earthlink.net> wrote:
> I have not had to read stats tables. But here is what I've done with a
> reader for other tables.
> Cindy,
> You are right in that having a table with hundreds of cells in braille is
> not practical.
> What I do is find what I need to understand or look up. Example from
> chemistry; say the table had columns listing chemicals, down the rows were
> the chemical formulas. I would ask someone to read the column headings If
> that was too much, I'd ask for a sampling or the main ones. Then I direct
> them what row to read. Another way to find what you need in a table is to
> have an electronic copy. Then just use the find command, control f, to find
> it.
> Ashley
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Cindy Bennett
> Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2012 8:47 PM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Locating a standard normal distribution table
>
> I thikn it would be great to get your hands on tactile representations
> of the distributions that the various significance tests create. I
> took AP stats in high school, and was thus lucky enough to have my
> textbook in braille with the tactile representations. Therefore, I
> unfortunately cannot give you any informatoin as to where to find
> these representations or brailled tables. My braille book also had the
> tables you are speaking of, and I found that it was cumbersome and
> that it took a lot of unnecessary time for me to navigate the tables.
> I agree that it is important to have a strong grasp of the tables so
> that you can tell a reader how to read the tables, but I feel that the
> day to day time in statistics will be better spent understanding
> concepts and working formulas than in perusing the tables. They are
> huge tables with hundreds of values, and if you ever use statistics in
> a job setting, you will undoubtedly do the computations on computer
> software that will eliminate the need for tables anyway.
>
> Cindy
>
> On 2/14/12, Ashley Bramlett <bookwormahb at earthlink.net> wrote:
>> try APH, www.aph.org
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Anjelina
>> Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2012 5:10 PM
>> To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>> Subject: [nabs-l] Locating a standard normal distribution table
>>
>> Good evening list,
>> Does anyone know where I could find a Braille standard normal distribution
>> table?
>> Thanks for any assistance.
>>
>> Anjelina
>> _______________________________________________
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>
>
> --
> Cindy Bennett
> B.A. Psychology, UNC Wilmington
>
> clb5590 at gmail.com
> 828.989.5383
>
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