[nabs-l] AP statistics

Fri Apr 25 19:48:23 UTC 2014

Hi Arielle and all,

I apologize for my horrible email responsive habits again. I met with my
stats teacher today for next year. The meeting itself was good, and the
teacher seemed willing to work with me. She said that she rarely uses excel
or hand graphs and instead uses a graphing calculator. She said she would
send me a list of functions so that I could have the summer to work out what
I needed to do. 

However, one thing that did not go well was my TVI. I apologize if I need to
start a new thread for this. While he did let me deal directly with my
teacher (which surprised me), when my teacher mentioned that there was some
trig that would be on the ACT that I would need to know just as a sort of
FYI thing to consider, my TVI kept bringing the conversation back to the ACT
and math in general, and if she thought I should switch out, although she
had previously said that it was just a thing to consider. I thanked the
teacher for her concern and said that I had consulted with multiple sources,
and although there was some trepidation it was not going to be a huge gaping
concern to me in the long run. I had spoken to my TVI about this beforehand
and he was not listening to me about the issue. 
I walked out of a meeting that was supposed to turn out pretty good feeling
very concerned and upset; not because of the class, but because of my TVI's
actions. I respect and understand the fact that he has concerns, but he is
addressing them in a way that isn't the best. He says stuff like "I don't
think you can handle this" or "I don't think your parents know what you are
doing." Although I have my parents entire support on this, he has not
contacted them about it. He tried to get my guidance counselor to dissuade
me from taking AP classes, but my counselor sited with me. My parents and I
have agreed that I need to speak to him on Monday about how that was
probably not the best course of action to take on his part and how I and my
parents have made this decision and he needs to respect it. 
His actions in this respect and his negative actions in general are
completely destroying what little confidence I had both in blindness and as
a person. I feel like I have no right to speak against him or that he will
not take me seriously no matter how I phraise anything because no matter
what I'm just a dumb blind teenager who knows absolutely nothing about her
capabilities or about anything in general. There are incidents besides this
one where I have felt like I was being questioned. I do not think I have
done anything to make him question me like this. 
He is completely destroying my confidence and I need to salvage what little
I have left to make him stop treating me like this. I understand that
everyone has different ways of dealing with people, but I do not think
whether he knows it or not, he should not be aiming to destroy my confidence
or make me feel like I have to prove something to him. I understand that not
all of this is his fault and through my actions I have probably done
something to earn this, but I would like to know what. 
I apologize for complaining here, and I am not trying to get pitty. I do
plan to talk to him on Monday so I can at least try to do something
constructive about the situation. He has done some good things, but the bad
things overshadow the good things he has done. 

Thanks,
Lillie

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Arielle
Silverman
Sent: Saturday, April 19, 2014 12:10 AM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] AP statistics

Hi Lillie,

I don't know exact answers to most of your questions, but just wanted to let
you know that I've taken five statistics courses (including
graduate-level) without ever using a graphing calculator. While sighted
students might be expected to use a graphing calculator and the stats
functions on yours might be accessible, even if they are not, you can
definitely participate without using a graphing calculator. In fact, I think
graphing is a very minor part of the course curriculum. That said, I don't
know what the AP test looks like, and you might have to use a graphing
calculator on the test.
Sometimes the graphing requirements are altered for blind students, so you
may want to find out what the regular test requires and then contact the
college board to see if any inaccessible parts of the normal requirements
are modified (I'm guessing your TVI may not be the best person to ask based
on your other posts).

If hand-graphing is required, I always just wrote out detailed descriptions
of the graphs. Again, I don't think actually seeing the graph is important
for understanding the underlying math and interpreting results. I just did
it to appease the teacher's requirements on exams and such.
You can do most of the required calculations either in Excel or with a
web-based calculator at www.graphpad.com/quickcalcs/ Your teacher may or may
not know about GraphPad, but you might offer to use that instead of any
inaccessible software that's required.
Braille Note stats functions may also work, but it depends on whether you're
expected to calculate basics like means and standard deviations by
calculator or by hand. In college stats we had to do it by hand, using a
standard calculator to compute square roots and other basic math. I used
JAWS to read me the data and then used my Braille Note calculator for
computations, and Excel will also work for that.

Sorry I can't offer more help without knowing more details, but I'm happy to
consult when you have more specific questions.

Best,
Arielle

On 4/18/14, Lillie Pennington <lilliepennington at fuse.net> wrote:
> Hi Everyone
>
>
>
> I will be taking AP statistics next year. I am going to contact the 
> teacher of the class next week, but I want to know what I am talking 
> about before I have a meeting. If anyone has  taken this class, 
> answering these questions would be very helpful. I am not sure how 
> college stats classes work, but I'd think they would be similar.
>
>
>
> 1.        Are graphing calculators needed? I have the TI84 from APH  and
> used it this year. Are the statistical functions accessible?
>
>
>
> 2.       Is excel used? Roughly what parts?
>
>
>
> 3.       What about the statistical functions part of the Braille note
> calculator? Is this used? Again, what functions?
>
>
>
> 4.       Roughly are there any new Nemeth symbols introduced?
>
>
>
> 5.       Is there any reason I would have to hand-draw a graph at any
point
> if I have the calculator and excel available to me?
>
>
>
> 6.       Are there parts of the course, minus inaccessible software, that
> are inaccessible?
>
>
>
> Thanks
>
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