[nabs-l] Chemistry Braille Code

Thu Jun 5 17:48:26 UTC 2014

Hi, Chris,

It has been several years since my TVI went on a crusade of teaching
me the chem code, and I have forgotten a lot of it since I had no
desire to take Chem in high school and have no need to take it in
college, but I remember there were a few key things I saw all the time
when learning it.  It might be helpful if your TVI can look up some
basic chemical structures like ionic bonds, covalent bonds, etc.  A
lot of these use the bar over symbol, or the one five six if it is
known by other names.  I agree with others that you can use drawing
kits and other tactile methods to show the structures, and for me I
wish I would have had one of those methods.  I did use a little
chemistry code in 10th grade biology, and having knowledge of the code
didn't really do me any favors when I was asked to draw ionic bonds
and such because I had no idea what they looked like.  I think to have
a better understanding of chemistry it is more beneficial to know the
structure of atoms and bonds and such rather than to have the braille
code nailed.

Also, do check out Math Gems as Cindi suggested.  It's a great resource.

On 6/5/14, Cindy Bennett via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hi Chris,
>
> I am far removed from chemistry as I did not study that in college,
> but I do remember the beginning of chemistry class with my braille
> textbook. There was never an explicit IEP goal for me to learn
> chemistry code, and although I had learned Nemeth, I had learned a
> subset of Nemeth based on the classes I had taken pretty informally
> through my textbooks. So I did encounter some symbols that I did not
> know the meaning of. The most helpful thing I did was to ask someone
> next to me to read a couple of chemistry equations out loud. As they
> read the equation, I was able to parse which symbols were indicators
> of changes from letters to numbers and which symbols actually
> represented the numbers and element abbreviations. I was very
> frustrated before it occurred to me to ask someone for a bit of help,
> but after 5 minutes, I understood the notation. I think that as you go
> through your class and consider whether you want to take more advanced
> chemistry, you can take initiative to seek out more complex Nemeth
> symbols, but in my memory, I don't remember the quick lesson on
> notations putting me behind.
>
> If your textbook has arrived, you can of course take a volume home
> just for fun and begin to figure it out yourself.
>
> I also highly recommend that you get a periodic table in braille,
> super important!
>
> I used a Velcro kit to make chemical structures and to represent
> bonds. Differently shaped Velcro pieces allowed for variety and I
> could indicate on a key what the shapes meant whether they represented
> different elements or different parts of an atom. I used skinny Velcro
> strips to represent bonds and placed multiple strips between atoms
> depending on what type of bond it was.
>
> When I was in high school, I wrote out my homework and quizzes on my
> laptop and my teacher and I had an understanding of how I would
> textually represent a symbol if there was a symbol that was difficult
> to make, but I did the superscript numbers just fine. You could of
> course consider learning LaTex to assist you with making the more
> complex symbols which could be a summer project. There is a lot of
> support for LaTex in general as well as through the blind math
> community.
>
> Finally, when I was reading the Jernigan newsletter this morning, I
> was reminded of the organized blindmath archives called Blind Gems.
> Check them out on blindscience.org.
>
> Cindy
>
> On 6/5/14, Aleeha Dudley via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> Hi,
>> I used a tactile drawing kit to draw anything that I needed to in my
>> chemistry courses. The chemistry code is incorporated into nemeth so that
>> shouldn't be a huge problem if you have a Braille  textbook.
>> Hope that helps,
>> Aleeha
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>>> On Jun 5, 2014, at 10:04 AM, Lillie Pennington via nabs-l
>>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi Chris
>>> I am taking chem next year and if I recall correctly my teacher told me
>>> that there were no special symbols. I could try seeing if the electronic
>>> copy of my textbook raises any Braille red flags. I know everyone's
>>> situation is different but I would suspect that the courses are similar.
>>> There are also files with the symbols for the various Braille codes that
>>> I
>>> did not find particularly helpful because they did not encompass all of
>>> the symbols I needed to know.
>>> Btw, do you have a periodic table and a way to draw atoms?
>>> Hth
>>>
>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>
>>>> On Jun 5, 2014, at 7:59 AM, Chris Nusbaum via nabs-l
>>>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Good Morning Everyone,
>>>>
>>>> I hope everyone is having a wonderful start to the summer season and
>>>> that
>>>> those of us who must still try to conquer end-of-school burnout are
>>>> overcoming it or at least trying to.
>>>>
>>>> So I'm taking Chemistry 1 next year and trying to prepare. I'm told
>>>> that
>>>> there is a specific Braille code used for chemistry, which I think is a
>>>> part of the Nemeth Code. One of my IEP goals for this year is to learn
>>>> the code in preparation for my class next semester. However, my TVI
>>>> does
>>>> not know the choistry code very well at all and therefore has not even
>>>> started work on it. So my question is this: how detailed is the
>>>> chemistry
>>>> code, if there in fact is one? To those of you who have taken chemistry
>>>> courses, did learning the Braille code require much preparation time
>>>> prior to the start of the class? Like other math subjects, could I
>>>> learn
>>>> the relevant symbols as I need them in the class and not fall behind?
>>>> My
>>>> concern is that with only a week of school left, I will not be able to
>>>> have the time I need to learn the code and could begin the course with
>>>> a
>>>> very limited knowledge of the code I need to use. I would appreciate
>>>> any
>>>> and all thoughts from those who have experience with chemistry and the
>>>> associated Braille code.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks in advance,
>>>> Chris Nusbaum
>>>>
>>>> Sent from my iPhone
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>>>
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>
>
> --
> Cindy Bennett
> Secretary: National Association of Blind Students
>
> B.A. Psychology, UNC Wilmington
> clb5590 at gmail.com
>
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-- 
Kaiti