[nabs-l] Consultation regarding an Academic Mission Needed

Mon Jun 4 04:55:04 UTC 2012

When a device isn't supported, it means that if it breaks, they won't fix it. For this reason, I would strongly advise against getting an unsupported device, no matter how good it is.

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 3, 2012, at 7:54 PM, "Ashley Bramlett" <bookwormahb at earthlink.net> wrote:

> Brandon,
> What do you  mean by not being supported? Are they sold by APH? Also, can you get them with and without a braille display?
> Sounds like a good notetaker.
> 
> -----Original Message----- From: Brandon Keith Biggs
> Sent: Sunday, June 03, 2012 7:58 PM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Consultation regarding an Academic Mission Needed
> 
> Yes, and I will be going to my first national convention this year!
> Also, Braille+s are being sold all the time, but despite not being
> supported, they are the best PDA out there, especially for reading or
> listening to books... So much so, that the winners of the Bookshare reading
> challenges almost always have a Braille+. The music player on it is
> unmatched as well, there is nothing better than to be able to create custom
> play lists, have your music play on random, go to the name of your artist
> and find all their songs, place songs in the right order when they were put
> out of order by Amazon, increase the speed, navigate through the audio with
> multiple level navigation and store 64 gigs of music and books without any
> external cards. I have around 25 Operas as well as all the albums from about
> 15 artists, 600+ full books from both NLS and Bookshare, and I have only
> used 25 Gigs. Not even half way there...
> I haven't even touched programming my own programs.
> Thanks,
> 
> Brandon Keith Biggs
> -----Original Message----- From: Chris Nusbaum
> Sent: Sunday, June 03, 2012 1:39 PM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Consultation regarding an Academic Mission Needed
> 
> Were you the opera performance major who won an NFB scholarship
> this year?
> 
> Chris Nusbaum
> 
> "For we walk by faith, not by sight."
> 2 Corinthians 5:7
> 
> Sent from my BrailleNote
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Brandon Keith Biggs" <brandonkeithbiggs at gmail.com
> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> sent: Sun, 3 Jun 2012 00:30:52 -0700
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Consultation regarding an Academic Mission
> Needed
> 
> Hello,
> I'm training to be an Opera singer, but I do all kinds of
> stuff...
> Thanks,
> 
> Brandon Keith Biggs
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ashley Bramlett
> Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2012 10:04 PM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Consultation regarding an Academic Mission
> Needed
> 
> Brandon,
> What is your major? Haven't seen you here til recently.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Brandon Keith Biggs
> Sent: Sunday, June 03, 2012 12:43 AM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Consultation regarding an Academic Mission
> Needed
> 
> Hello,
> If you're a computer programmer, you may not like mainstream
> products.
> For example I can't stand the victor readers and I'm only getting
> an Apex
> because it's the smallest 32 celled PDA out there.
> But for programming, getting your hands on a Braille+ would be
> heaven as it
> runs on a Linux operating system and it uses Python in its sours
> code.  They
> opened up a developer package, so one is able to develop their
> own apps for
> the BP and the commands are very programmer friendly.
> The only thing that I've heard is hard in a computer engineer
> class is
> soldering the small wires to the different hardware pieces
> without touching
> anything.
> Other than that, programming blind is just as fast if not faster
> than
> programming sighted.
> But really join the program list.
> Thanks,
> 
> Brandon Keith Biggs
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joshua Lester
> Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2012 9:01 PM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Consultation regarding an Academic Mission
> Needed
> 
> What about contacting these guys, to get your books in Braille,
> if
> that's what you prefer?
> http://www.mbvol.org
> Just wondering!
> Joshua
> 
> On 6/2/12, Ashley Bramlett <bookwormahb at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Hamid,
> I'll start by saying  that I graduated from Marymount
> university, a
> private
> liberal arts school, a few years ago.  I combined studies for a
> degree as I
> did not feel I could handle a full degree in psychology.  At the
> time the
> stats software, SPSS, was not accessible and I would have faced
> other
> barriers.  My degree was in liberal studies with focus in
> communication and
> psychology.
> School is challenging at the post secondary level because you do
> not have
> access to braille.  In public school my Teacher of the vision
> impaired,
> TVI,
> obtained my books in accessible format either audio, braille or
> large
> print
> or a combo of those as well as brailled any handouts the class
> received.
> Therefore when my sighted classmates got a worksheet, so did I
> and I did
> not
> have to wait for alternative forms of texts as I did in college.
> I did
> despite requesting electronic formats way in advance of my
> classes!
> I'm also not too active in NFB so my opinion may differ from
> others.  I
> know
> we want to present a positive image, but IMO we may have to take
> it slowly
> at the beginning while adjusting to a new school, new major, and
> new ways
> of
> doing things.
> 
> Anyway, that said, I wish you success in your
> computer science studies.  You might want to do two classes your
> first
> semester.  Where will you be studying? What country do you
> come
> from and were you educated there in a mainstream class or school
> for the
> blind? Do you mind sharing what your vision impairment is? Its
> obvious
> your
> vision loss is new and I'm guessing probably a gradual loss.
> Maybe you
> have
> RP, retinitinis pigmentosa.  I'm visually impaired too, so I
> know the
> benefits of seeing things where spatial relationships are
> involved.
> However,
> I also was taught braille and use that as my primary medium and
> print my
> secondary one for reading.
> I think by seeing something like say geometry figures or a
> diagram of the
> heart, I can better picture it than if I learned it just by a
> description.
> So, for some of us vision impaired people, using it is effective
> and we do
> not have to use all nonvisual ways.  Because you cannot read
> braille
> effectively, I think using your vision may help a lot provided
> you can see
> large print well without fatigue.
> BTW, you might be able to use jumbo braille a little bit even
> though you
> have hand trimmers.
> 
> I do not know computer science or math majors so my advice may
> be more
> general and I'm imagining what might be useful to you
> in this program of study based on the little I know of CS.
> 
> You are right that getting special equipment will help your
> studies a lot.
> I use adaptive equipment all the time.  For instance, I love my
> braille
> note,
> a portable PDA from humanware.  In the US, we have a service
> that records
> books on CD and digital form.  It
> is Learning Ally www.learningally.org.
> I do not know if they provide service to study abroad students,
> but you
> might check on that.  Learning ally may have your textbooks in
> their
> library.
> If you choose to use them, you might want to buy a VR Stream and
> you can
> use
> an sd card to play their books.  You could also buy a vr stratus
> which
> plays
> daisy cds.  Both are available from humanware.
> 
> These are some other ideas here.  I know you will need a way to
> draw things
> in your CS studies.  They use a lot of flow charts and also if
> you study
> computer programming that has a lot of visual stuff too.
> You already know about freedom scientific because you use jaws
> and
> openbook.
> If you tell us how you plan to read your books and take notes I
> might have
> more suggestions.
> 
> Let me know if you need or want to know where to purchase these.
> The first
> four items are available from APH, American printing house for
> the blind.
> Click on products and then low vision reading and writing to
> find these.
> 
> 1.  bold line paper or bold line notebook; these lines are
> easier to see
> than
> standard loose leaf paper.
> 2.  writing guides; these are templates which you slide a paper
> into and
> write between the boxes of the template; good for writing
> straight if you
> do
> not have lined paper.
> 3.  large print ruler
> 4.  bold lined graph paper; might help as you draw concepts or
> if you take
> math classes
> 5.  a CCTV, it뭩 a magnifier that you put a paper or book
> underneath it and
> it magnifies print on the screen
> 6.  a digital recorder
> 
> Other tools for writing or drawing diagrams you can get at
> general stores.
> You could use Mr.  Sketch markers some.  They are multi clored
> and good for
> drawing contrasting lines.  You might also use graphic art tape,
> which is
> in
> red and black, so you could see and touch the lines if you used
> both
> colors.
> Crayola also makes some thick markers you might also be able to
> see well
> and
> find useful.
> 
> Good luck.
> 
> Ashley
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Hamid Hamraz
> Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2012 5:54 AM
> To: Blind Math ; National Association of Blind Students mailing
> list
> Subject: [nabs-l] Consultation regarding an Academic Mission
> Needed
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> I am going to start a computer science graduate program in US in
> the
> upcoming fall.  However, this is my first academic mission after
> I got
> visually impaired.  The standard load for a semester would be 3
> graduate
> courses.  On the other hand, as you know, we blinds and VI folks
> are
> remarkably slower in CS-related assignments like math,
> programming, etc.
> 
> Now, I greatly appreciate it if experienced people in the list
> offer me
> suggestions regarding the course load, etc.  Besides, I should
> order
> VI-related equipment for my workplace well in advance.  So far
> I've thought
> about these:
> 
> 1.  A large LCD (+25 inch)
> 2.  Headphone
> 3.  Scanner
> 4.  Printer
> 5.  Whiteboard (on which I can read single letters and digits or
> very large
> figures/diagrams)
> 6.  Software (JAWS and Open Book to which I am very well
> accustomed)
> 7.  An ergonomic keyboard with many extra function keys
> 
> Please note that I can not read Braille effectively (mostly
> because of
> some
> very little tremor in my hands and fingers).
> 
> If anybody has some other things to add to the list, I'd be glad
> to hear.
> 
> Look forward to hearing back both your academic and non-academic
> advices.
> 
> Many thanks,
> 
> Hamid
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> 
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> 
> 
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