[nabs-l] research techniques and assistance

Mon Aug 25 13:43:56 UTC 2014

All,
I think this is a fabulous topic! First, research skills are ones
which are not necessarily intuitive, and which all successful college
students learn to refine and perfect throughout their college career.
Unfortunately, there are numerous accessibility barriers with
databases and eBooks, which others have access too readily. Part of
the answer, and Ashley, you are on the right track, is to learn how to
most effectively use databases, and search tools like Google Scholar.
Most universities have workshops that students can attend, and which
focus specifically on research, many times even by topic. Through my
senior year in college, it wasn't strange for a class, which had a
major research paper do at the end of the semester, to have a class
scheduled at the library, and have a reference librarian show us the
tips and tricks. The other half of the equation, is to be creative
with using your assistive software, a lot of times websites are
inaccessible enough to be a nightmare, but sometimes there is a hidden
work around, like using the different cursor modes in Jaws, right
clicking instead of pressing enter, etc. This makes things more time
consuming than they ought to be, but unfortunately, until we can get
this trend of technology being developed inaccessibly reversed, we
must live with that reality.
As far as articles, that's part of research. You do your best to
narrow down the material you get back by using good search
terminology, by categorizing, by reading the abstract, but at one
point you have to just read the articles. No one article is going to
give you all the information your need, that's why you use so many
citations at the end of the day, because one part of one paper may be
of relevance, but the other twenty pages aren't. Good research takes
time, and the better you get at it, the better you become at using
that time more efficiently.
As far as PDFs, I've been suggesting to students to ask for Adobe Pro
from VR or to purchase it if possible. If you take the time to learn
some accessibility remediation techniques with Adobe, many tutorials
are available online, you can tag your own pdfs and fix reading order
and navigation. It won't be perfect, but at least it'll make them
legible. Kurzweil 1000 is also incredibly useful. If it's 2 AM and the
paper is due in six hours, not that I've ever been there, you can save
pdfs to your pc, run them through Kurzweil and that way the articles
become legible if not perfect.
Last, not all databases are created equal. Depending on your subject,
you may want to filter through subjects when choosing databases, for
the humanities I  found EPSCO databases to be really accessible,
Jstor, PsychInfo, the Oxford databases, and quite a few others were
very good. And some won't be. There are so many tips and tricks to
conducting research, so I strongly suggest seeing if a college does
those research workshops, and just taking the time to figure out what
works for you and what doesn't. Unfortunately, there isn't a universal
answer when it comes to accessibility. We must advocate for
manufacturers and universities to become responsible for only
procuring and implementing accessible learning tools, but that's a
battle that has to be fought outside the research library!
Thanks.
Mary

On 8/25/14, justin williams via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> It just depends on what I am looking for; I take pieces parts of several
> articles, and just put them together into a research paper.  It helps to no
> something about your topic.  If you have no knowledge about a topic, get a
> book from nls to start you off, then fine your articles.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Sofia Gallo via
> nabs-l
> Sent: Monday, August 25, 2014 7:33 AM
> To: Helga Schreiber; National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] research techniques and assistance
>
> I also have to read a lot of the article to see if it's relevant but I
> thought this was true for everyone?
>
> Sofia
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Aug 25, 2014, at 4:10 AM, Helga Schreiber via nabs-l
>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hi all! I have the same questions as Ashley. For me, research is not
>> so easy as well!! Hope to hear from you soon. Thanks  so much and God
>> bless!!  :-)
>>
>> Helga Schreiber
>>
>> Fundraiser Coordinator for Phi Theta Kappa, Alpha Delta Iota chapter.
>> Member of National Federation of the Blind and Florida Association of
>> Blind Students.
>> Member of the International Networkers Team (INT).
>> Independent Entrepreneur of the Company 4Life Research.
>> Phone:  (561) 706-5950
>> Email: helga.schreiber26 at gmail.com
>> Skype: helga.schreiber26
>> 4Life Website: http://helgaschreiber.my4life.com/1/default.aspx
>> INT Website: http://int4life.com/
>>
>> "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that
>> whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John
>> 3:16 Sent from my iPhone
>>
>>> On Aug 25, 2014, at 3:17 AM, Ashley Bramlett via nabs-l
>>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> Its been my experience that research is very challenging. Have you run
>>> into these issues?
>>>
>>> Not all databases are fully accessible, although that has been better in
>>> the past couple years.
>>> For instance, academic search complete and other Search complete
>>> databases do not let you change the combo box from the default and to
>>> read "or". This means it would look for search terms A and B or search
>>> term C.
>>>
>>> Other challenges I've had are evaluating if the article is relevant. I do
>>> read abstracts first and think through it. It seems like I read most of
>>> an article only to realize its not relevant.
>>> Also, some articlesare pdfs with words smashed together; I end up asking
>>> a reader to read them.
>>>
>>> What assistance have you had with research? All school libraries have
>>> reference librarians at a certain desk. Do you just ask them where to
>>> look? Have you needed or wanted more help learning the databases and
>>> electronic references? Has the librarians worked  1 on 1 with you? At the
>>> community college and my university, Marymount, they did assist me a
>>> little privately to get me started. They gave me specific instructions on
>>> what to click on and which boxes to check to get what I needed. I needed
>>> to limit to full text, for instance; also if I needed recent articles, I
>>> was taught how to write in the date range.
>>>
>>> These references seem inaccessible. Was that your experience?
>>>
>>> a.. Encyclopedia Britanica
>>> b.. Credo reference
>>> c.. Gale biography in context
>>>
>>>
>>> Also, books are not accessible and libraries have lots of them.
>>> How do you direct readers to find what you need? I've tried asking for
>>> headings and table of contents. This does not always work. Is skimming
>>> relevant chapters the best thing?
>>>
>>> Thanks.
>>> Ashley
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-- 
Mary Fernandez
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will
forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them
feel."
--
Maya Angelou