[nabs-l] Statistics Class

Chris Nusbaum dotkid.nusbaum at gmail.com
Wed Sep 12 21:17:19 UTC 2012


Hi Cody and Arielle,

Great advice as always, Arielle! Cody, I believe there are 
symbols in the Nemeth Code for Greek letters, so if it's possible 
for you to write your homework in Braille, that's also an option.  
I don't know all of them, as I'm only in intermediate algebra.  I 
do know that the delta sign in Nemeth is 4-6 d.

Arielle, I agree with you about verbal descriptions of graphs; in 
fact, that's what I do as well.  Yesterday in math we did a 
lesson on graphing linear equations.  In this lesson we had to 
create our own graph, including a title, a scale for the x and y 
axes, and labels for the x and y axes.  Of course my math teacher 
didn't know how I was going to handle this, so she asked my TVI, 
who said (answering the same question asked by both my math 
teacher and me) that I could write a verbal description.  For 
these kinds of problems, I put below my work as my verbal 
description "x equals (label,) y equals (label.)" I then put the 
increments used for the x and y axes, for example "x incrament 
equals counting up by 2's" or "y incrament equals counting up by 
5's, every other space on graph." If I'm graphing a linear 
equation with a slope and a y-intercept, I'll write a verbal 
description that looks something like this: "Line starts at 
(y-intercept number) on the y axis, then goes up (rise) and to 
the left or right (run.) As long as the teacher/professor knows 
that you understand the concept and how the graph should look if 
there is a graph, I think you'll be good.  They don't necessarily 
need to see an actual visual graff  from everybody, and (in my 
experience) they definitely don't want the one blind person in 
the class to take forever and frustrate themselves trying to make 
a graph that looks correct.  I think the verbal description would 
be enough.

Hope this helps,

Chris

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Arielle Silverman <arielle71 at gmail.com
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Mon, 10 Sep 2012 19:22:34 -0600
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Statistics Class

Hi Cody,
I have taken several stats courses (on my fifth one this 
semester, to
be exact) and I always make up my own symbols or write Greek 
letters
in words, i.e.  "sum(x+y) or "sigma(x+y), "x-bar" etc.  I have 
never had
any issues with this method and I think it is completely 
justified
because as far as I know, JAWS is unable to read Greek letters 
and it
is important that your homework assignments are written in a way 
that
makes sense to both you and the professor.  You may want to go 
back and
review your homework as a study aid later so it is best to have 
it
written in a manner that JAWS can read.  The only time in my 
researcher
life when using the right letters mattered is when I am writing a
paper for publication and in that case, it is easy to have a 
reader
change the word "sigma" to the actual character.  But for 
homework or
tests, using the words should be fine.
Similarly, if an assignment requires drawing a graph or diagram, 
like
a histogram, I think writing a verbal description of what the 
graph
would look like is just fine.  The professor just wants to know 
that
you understand what the graph should look like and, like with the
symbols, a verbal description has the advantage of being 
meaningful
for both you and the professor.  Again, invest the time with a 
reader
if you are presenting the graph to other students, or writing a 
formal
paper with it, but if it's just homework, the main thing is to 
show
you understand what the graph should look like, what the 
relationships
are between variables, etc.
BTW, I started a new listserv on NFBNet, called
"Social-Sciences-List", where we talk about statistics among 
other
things.  It is not very high-traffic so you may want to join it.
Best,
Arielle

On 9/10/12, Ian Perrault <iperrault at hotmail.com> wrote:

         Hi
 Actually, I'm also taking a Statistics class.  I have a 
note-taker, and have

 the teaching assistant write me the formulas.  For math signs, 
just have the

 professor write them out in words like plus, minus, equals, 
stuff like that.

 The trick is to have all the notes, concepts, and assignments in 
all text,
 and in as many words as possible so that you'll totally 
understand them.


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