[nabs-l] Fwd: research techniques and assistance
Karl Martin Adam
kmaent1 at gmail.com
Mon Aug 25 18:17:37 UTC 2014
That index problem is one of the many reasons I always use
publisher files or scanned books not audio. Another place you
could go, at least in the humanities where a lot of scholarly
work is published in books not journal articles, is bookshare.
They actually have a very good selection of academic books these
days often including edited collections of relevant articles. If
your looking at websites, what you really want are pages with
.edu domains--they typically are written by professors
specializing in the area of the content. Also for statistical
information there are many (usually relatively accessible)
government websites--.gov domains.
----- Original Message -----
From: Ashley Bramlett via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
To: "Derek Manners" <dmanners at jd16.law.harvard.edu>,"National
Association of Blind Students mailing list" <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 13:54:50 -0400
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Fwd: research techniques and assistance
Derek,
I use my textbook too for general info and an overview of
something. I
usually need a reader for that though because I need to look up
that in the
index and cannot do so with a audio version of the text.
Most of the time though its not in the text or it’s a paragraph
so its not
helpful.
Do you use the internet for sources or just to get started? My
concern with
internet is sites are not always authentic
but I've found some with .org domains to be okay at least to get
started.
Thanks for the advice.
Ashley
-----Original Message-----
From: Derek Manners via nabs-l
Sent: Monday, August 25, 2014 11:11 AM
To: justin williams ; National Association of Blind Students
mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Fwd: research techniques and assistance
I can't speak to the accessibility options but just generally,
your research
librarians are bored and would love to help you out. I rely on
mine all the
time. Also, I also tend to read a lot of articles that don't pan
out so I
also think this is pretty common.
I'd also agree with the comment about needing to know something
about the
topic. My approach is to google/Wikipedia the topic or topics
first. Then
check my textbook if the topic is in there. Then I do a little
searching.
But if I get stuck, I turn to the research librarian pretty
quickly to get
moving.
Best
Derek
PS
I use zoom text so that is why I can't speak to the accessibility
options.
Sent from my iPhone
On Aug 25, 2014, at 10:00 AM, justin williams via nabs-l
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
Oops, How did that not go to the list?
-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
Mary
Fernandez
via nabs-l
Sent: Monday, August 25, 2014 9:56 AM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: [nabs-l] Fwd: research techniques and assistance
I think Justin meant to send this to the whole list
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: justin williams <justin.williams2 at gmail.com
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 09:53:05 -0400
Subject: RE: [nabs-l] research techniques and assistance
To: Mary Fernandez <trillian551 at gmail.com
I take each paper as a separate entity as far as accessibility
is
concerned.
I take a day of two and just do the research. In other words, I
have no
intent to write the paper, but to simply get the articles I want
and
figure
out my base for the paper. Folks, I spend 6 to 8 hours, but I
get 6 to 7
articles and sometimes more, though I have found any more than
about 9 or
10
more cumbersome then helpful. I work out all the
accessibility issues
before I do anything with writing the paper. Don't forget your
nls books,
or books on the blio. Sometimes the articles are pdfs, and
other times
they
are web based; I try to stick to web based, but that is not
always
possible.
Pdfs can be made accessible in a variety of ways, but sometimes,
none of
those ways are adequate; the article can still become unusable.
I have
found google scholar inaccessible for obtaining the articles, If
someone
has
a tip for this, please share. I write down my citations for
each articles
and save them in a separate file.
-----Original Message-----
From: Mary Fernandez [mailto:trillian551 at gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, August 25, 2014 9:44 AM
To: justin williams; National Association of Blind Students
mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] research techniques and assistance
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
--
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
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