[nfbcs] Math software

[Jude DaShiell]

A first pass at your questions.  The students need to get the isbn of 
those math books they can't take home.  Then a search on bookshare.org 
can be done as well as learning ally for that isbn.  It could be one or 
another provider already has the book or books in question available.  
Aside from the math textbooks, the students need to get their hands on 
the Nemeth Code Books in braille.  I hope they can read Braille, there's 
no way they'll survive algebra geometry or calculus or statistics 
without it.  They're going to need to learn the extra math braille and 
forms for writing their work so they can read it.  Some of the rest of 
what would be needed is good accessible Computer Assisted Instruction 
software.  On Linux, there is a debian.edu distribution in which 
additional software to help students learn math is installed by default. 
 I don't know how accessible any of that is.  Graphing is best not done 
in braille but rather on modeling clay the same way the Babylonians id 
it since the lines and other features are tactile and it's real low tech 
with real low cost.  Part of how my math education was deficient in High 
School was a misplaced concentration on learning Spanish by my itinerant 
vision consultant and the fact I didn't get my hands on the Nemeth Code 
books until well into College way after they were needed.

On Sun, 7 Apr 2013, Mike Jolls wrote:

> I was at our NFB chapter meeting the other night and some of the kids I was
> chatting with were saying how difficult it is to do math.
> 
> I could relate since I remember sitting in class when I had zero technology
> and couldn't read the board ... you sort of just zone out.
> 
> They told me that some of the schools (high school I believe) don't let you
> take the book home.  And since they can't see what's going on in the class
> 
> and can't take the book home, they struggle terribly.  Also, some were
> saying even if they could take the book, they couldn't read it, and some
> 
> said their parents didn't know enough math to help them.  Bottom line, math
> was a huge struggle for these kids.
> 
>  
> 
> I haven't done any searching, but I was wondering if there are software
> solutions out there that could allow some of the following:
> 
>  
> 
> 1. The textbook is in accessible format so that a student can access it at
> home or at school with Jaws/Braille.
> 
> 2. Allows the teacher to compose lessons - when the student can't read the
> book and doesn't have access to an electronic version of the book.
> 
> 3. Allows teacher (as part of composition) to enter the problems to be
> solved in a "problem set".
> 
> 4. Teacher should be able to save to disk, web, etc 
> 
> 4. Allows students to access the lessons from disk/web and problems composed
> by the teacher.
> 
> 5. If student can't solve the problem presented, have an automated "solution
> solver" that will take student step by step through the solution.
> 
> Student should be able to see a line by line solution so they can see the
> steps necessary to solve the problem.
> 
> 6. Allow student to work the problems and have computer check the solution
> and tell student when right or wrong.
> 
> 7. If homework, allow student to compose solution and save to disk or upload
> to web.
> 
> 8. Allow teacher to access students work for grading.
> 
>  
> 
> Does anybody know if something like this is available?  Granted, this would
> NOT be trivial software to write, but having something like this would allow
> the students to deal with complex math such as elementary algebra,
> intermediate algebra, trig, etc, and get it in a format they can deal with.
> I think I would have found this useful back in the stone age when I was in
> high school.
> 
>  
> 
> Anybody know of anything?  Or, would you reply.... "you're a software guy,
> write it!".
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks
> 
>  
> 
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
jude <jdashiel at shellworld.net>
Microsoft, windows is accessible. why do blind people need screen readers?