[nfbcs] Seeking suggestions for helping blind students with math

[Mike Gorse]

That sounds like interesting research, and I'm really glad that you're 
doing it. Last year I tried to take the data analysis track on Coursera, 
but then I got to the Exploratory Data Analysis course, which was supposed 
to teach me about clustering and finding patterns within a dataset, but 
I'd go through various swirl lessons, plot a bunch of graphs that I 
couldn't read, and learn little. The course assumed that I could visually 
look at a graph, and I would need to find nonvisual ways of doing things. 
I'd meant to figure out exactly what questions I had and then write 
blindmath to ask if anyone had any tips--I'm presumably far from being the 
first person to go through this--and maybe the BrailleR package had tools 
that could have helped me, but sonification seems like it could be useful. 
Taking the courses was kind of a hobby / way to try to diversify my skill 
set, and I kind of lost my motivation to persevere in the face of the 
accessibility issues / became interested in some other things that have 
been taking up some of my spare time. Perhaps I will get back to them at 
some point.

On Sun, 15 Jan 2017, Martin, Vincent F via nfbcs wrote:

> Debee,
> Unfortunately, you truly can't provide much help.  The problem with their education started many years ago.  Math is no more visual now than when it was taught when I was sighted in the 80's, but the education provided to your students in K-12 was lacking.
> I have Retinitis Pigmentosa that wasn't diagnosed until I was 23.  I was finishing two Engineering degrees in the late 80's when it was diagnosed.  Later, I learned Braille before anyone thought I would plausibly learn to do so.  I knew that my disease makes you go blind, so I wasn't about to wait to learn to read Braille when I was totally blind.  That took almost ten more years to happen.  I have gone back to school in my 40's and hav earned two more degrees and am nearing the dissertation proposal for my PhD in Human Centered Computing.  All the upper level graduate Math I have had to take has been a struggle from the standpoint of the instructor's teaching in a visual manner, but mostly trying to get the material in the format I want.  I utilize a combination of Braille and electronic text to work any problems, which are virtually all Statistical in nature.  Since I excelled at listening, even as a sighted person, I prefer to listen to Mathematics.  I do most of my calculations
  with Neneth Braille on a notetaker or with my Perkins writer.  I am almost as adept at just typing it in a text editor though.  Getting the information ahead of time is the most useful technique as I always know I missed something in class.  I am still battling to get tactile graphs of Statistical output, but thankfully my research is in the area of making Statistical graphs and data analysis accessible by way of sonification.
> It literally is the other sources of information that I have used to "teach" myself most of the time.  I have an untold number of books from Bookshare, Learning Ally, and a variety of websites that I can access that have information in a format that I can actually read.
> Years ago, when I was working as a Rehabilitation Engineer and assistive technology instructor, I routinely told people that could not easily use their residual vision to take time out of school, go an dlearn Braille, and then come back.  Unfortunately, that might assist these students as well.