[nabs-l] Questions About Connect Math and Math Reader
Vejas Vasiliauskas
alpineimagination at gmail.com
Thu Jan 12 14:53:16 UTC 2017
Hi Elizabeth,
I'm going to be starting my math course today.
I can't assist you with Math-Connect, as I have never had
experience it.
As for your reader question: in my disability services office,
although I have not yet had experience with my reader, they pick
by department. So for example if it ever came down to me needing
a reader in Spanish, they would go to the Spanish d"partment,
meaning that they would get someone who is familiar with the
language. If I for some reason will not work well with a
particular reader, then I would try another one. Have your
disability services told you if their system works similarly?
Your Disability Services sounds unsupportive, and finding a
reader off them may not be the best course of action. You could
also try asking around. You could write up some flyers and put
them all over the school, and then you could interview them.
As an aside, if you do decide to try to get a reader with DSS, be
prepared for them to ask you on the spot before meeting the
reader what time you will want to work with the reader (which I
can appreciate that, given all other classes and activities, can
be difficult to know initially)
Vejas
----- Original Message -----
From: Elizabeth Mohnke via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Thu, 12 Jan 2017 13:19:36 +0000
Subject: [nabs-l] Questions About Connect Math and Math Reader
Hello All,
I currently do not have the time to go into too much detail
regarding my situation. However, I have a few questions about
being able to gain access to the course materials used for my
math class.
First, does anyone know if there is any way to be able to gain
access to the Connect Math online platform using either JAWS or
NVDA? I have tried using JAWS on an older desktop computer I have
at home, and the website was pretty much useless to me. However,
I know my computer is a bit old, and so this may be part of my
problem. I have not had the chance to try Connect Math on the
few computers on campus that have JAWS installed on them to see
if it works on the computers on campus. I have not had a chance
to test the Connect Math website with NVDA, but this would be an
option for me as well.
However, I have been told that the Connect Math online platform
is not accessible using a screen reader. So I am not quite sure
how effective it is for me to find a screen reader to use with
this platform. The last time I took a math class, I used a
reader for my class. Since this worked well for me before, I
thought it would work well for me again. However, when I used a
reader in the past, the reader had a lot of experience working as
a reader, and was fluent and efficient in being able to read and
write the math material for me.
However, that was quite some time ago, and things have changed a
bit since then. The current reader I have been given for my math
class by the disabilities office is a new reader. In addition,
she has not taken the math class I am currently trying to take,
and stated that she is not good at math when I was trying to work
with her during my first class period the other day.
When I tried explaining to the disabilities office the importance
of having a math reader who is knowledgeable and fluent in math,
they made the assumption that I was expecting my reader to be
able to explain things to me as a tutor. However, this is not
what I am expecting from my reader. I simply want someone who
can read and write the course material in a smooth efficient
manner as my time working with this person is limited to a
certain amount of time. However, the people in the disabilities
office could not and did not appear to want to understand why
this would be important to me.
My meeting with the disabilities office turned into a rather rude
and hostile meeting where I was told that I had absolutely no say
in whether or not the reader that was assigned to work with me
was efficient and effective in providing me with equal access to
the course material. It felt as though they were simply
dictating what accommodations I could use and that would work
best for me while personally attacking me and accusing me of
making accusations that had absolutely nothing to do with my
accommodations. It felt as though they were not interested in
listening to me or help me find a solution that would work best
for me.
So now that I have rambled, I am wondering if anyone knows how I
could use a screen reader with the Connect Math online platform
as well as help me find a way to explain to the disabilities
office the importance of having a math reader who is
knowledgeable and fluent in math. I am currently not on any of
the math or science email lists. So if anyone on any of these
lists would want to forward this email to those email lists, I
would greatly appreciate it. It is only the beginning of the
semester, but with all this stress of trying to figure out how to
work with the disabilities office, it feels more like the last
week of classes rather than the first week of classes.
Anyway, any positive support or suggestions would be greatly
appreciated.
Thanks,
Elizabeth
_______________________________________________
NABS-L mailing list
NABS-L at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info
for NABS-L:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/alpineimagina
tion%40gmail.com
More information about the NABS-L
mailing list