[nfbcs] Technical gaps that need to be filled for math classes.

[Tracy Carcione]

All I can say is that, within the last 2 years,  I've taught myself to use
2 devices by reading the manual.  Maybe I got lucky, but I didn't find it
all that hard.  I am impatient with manuals, and they sometimes leave out
information, but mostly I've used them successfully, and gotten where I
want to be in a shorter time than I would have waiting for someone to
train me in person. I guess I'm even more impatient with waiting on
someone else than I am with reading.
Tracy

> Unfortunately there is a massive market in the book publishing, on-line
> training, and in-person training areas for this very reason.  The "manual"
> or "study guide" provided by the producer of the product is normally the
> least useful modality for the actual consumer of the device or product to
> use.  The problem that is being discussed is pervasive and most
> prevalently pertaining to complex electronic software or devices.  Most
> people are not capable of actually teaching themselves to use a device nor
> do they have the patience, which is why actual manuals rarely exist
> anymore.  When they are produced, they are rarely written by a qualified
> communicator of the information.  Actual Technical writing is a skillset
> that rarely encountered and even fewer of the technical writers have
> worked with a person that has a background in Educational Psychology or
> curriculum development.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfbcs <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Tracy Carcione via
> nfbcs
> Sent: Sunday, February 3, 2019 10:10 AM
> To: 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List' <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Tracy Carcione <carcione at access.net>
> Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Technical gaps that need to be filled for math
> classes.
>
> I have found that often there is no substitute for reading the manual when
> trying to learn a new accessible device.  I know, we all want to take the
> thing out of the box, turn it on, and start working, but, in my
> experience, it usually doesn't work that way.  I too hate to RTFM, but, in
> the end, it saves a lot of time and aggravation.  It's nice to have
> someone else sit and explain things, but often there just isn't that
> helpful person around.
> I didn't grow up with Youtube and Google.  I find Google helpful, but
> Youtube not so much.  And neither is really a replacement for sitting down
> and reading the basics laid out in a manual or user's guide (except for
> using Google to find an online version of said manual.) It's a pain in the
> neck; it takes extra time; but it pays off in the long run.
> Doing stuff as a blind person often just takes longer than it does for a
> sighted person.  But, with some study and ingenuity, one can find little
> tricks that speed up the process a bit.  Still, I remember in college
> feeling like I had to work much longer hours than my sighted peers.
> Annoying, stressful, but that's what it took to reach my goal.
> And, annoying as it is, it is good to learn in school how to find the
> resources you need, because you won't get anywhere near so much help out
> in the work world.
> Sorry if this sounds harsh, but there it is.
> Tracy
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kendra Schaber
> via nfbcs
> Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2019 8:11 PM
> To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List
> Cc: Kendra Schaber
> Subject: [nfbcs] Technical gaps that need to be filled for math classes.
>
> Technical gaps that need to be filled for math classes.
> Hi all!
> I’m taking college algebra which has an awesome teacher and awesome
> support from my school’s Disability Services. Dispite this awesome
> support, the longer I’m in this class, the farther south I seem to be
> treading. No, it’s not entirely because I can’t solve a quadradic
> equation to save my life. It’s because I keep running into some major
> ethical and technical gaps that really need to be filled. I have an Orien
> TI84 graphic calculator, a Polaris Braille Sense with the Polaris Math
> app, a Dell laptop computer with both JAWS and NVDA installed on it, an
> iPhone SE with Voice Over and of course, this math class requires braille
> textbooks.
> I’m not here to ask for spasific help in one area here. But I have
> quickly spotted some major gaps that I think all math students are facing
> that need to be dealt with asap.
> Technology:”
> Orien TI84 graphic calculator:
> This graphic calculator is an awesome tool when you have mastered it. The
> ethical problem here is for those of us who are in our 30s and who are
> also not computer programers and who are also not young enough to have a
> sixth sense on how to figure out how to work technology. I’m one of the
> amiture folks who knows how to work technology once I have learned how to
> use this technology. I have noticed that the calculator is not as simular
> to the normal vertions as everyone wants you to believe. Whenever I have
> gone and had a sited person, tutor or teacher show me how to work this
> calculator, we often run into technical hang ups with the accessibility.
> For example, just before this writing, I was sitting in my math classroom
> after class itself had ended with my math teacher. He was walking me
> through how to discover the minamun point on a coordinent plane. We have
> noticed how much I’m slowed down when reading the points to hunt for
> this minamum. My teacher and I couldn’t figure out how to get the
> calculator to quickly list off this information without spending five
> minutes, (not egzaderating) just to read through the points to find the
> minamum. We have noticed that if I were to get ten of this kind of problem
> in my homework, that if I were to try this kind of problem without a pair
> of sited eyeballs, it would take me literarly, all day just to get through
> just that set of ten math problems. This example is just one of a few that
> I could list off the top of my head that are of this nature. While I’m
> on the same thread, this ethical technical issue also connects up to a
> bigger picture. I have noticed that everyone wants to point people like me
> to the usual resources like the school’s tutoring center, etutoring and
> of course, Professor U Tube and Professor Google and the manuals that are
> better served in the recycling bin. Sure, everything but the mannuals do
> have their place. Don’t get me wrong! But for people like me who are not
> born with NASA technical brains, we actually need our own teacher who
> already knows this calculator and who can actually teach better than the
> tutors that come from most school’s tutoring centers. The ethical issue
> is just as much a technical issue. These experts don’t igzist in most
> places where accessible tech is taught. I had to put out a call for help
> on the math list. Luckily, I managed to get a blind calculus student in
> college who knows this calculator. But I could just as easily have not
> found any one at all who could help me out. I also got more of the
> expected feedback in which I was told to go to the usual resources. But
> what people don’t truely don’t understand is that those resources
> leave just as many gaps as they fill whenever they do help out. Also, the
> U Tube vidios have so much visual information that they leave more gaps
> for a blind audience than they actually give to that same audience. Also,
> when you do run into something that is remotely useful, it costs an arm
> and a leg for those of us on SSI. So, either way, we are doomed for
> aquiring the right resources that are actually going to assist us normal
> non NASA brained folks.
> The Polaris Braille Sense:
> The Polaris Braille Sense is even more of a specialty piece of technology
> than the calculator. This awesome braille note taker is so new that there
> is not enough useful information that is presented in such a way that a
> blind person would benefit from when trying to learn how to use this note
> taker by using U Tube vidios. Just like the calculator, there are not
> enough specialty tech teachers who knows how to work this device. As the
> result, it can and does take months just to learn how to use the Polaris
> Braille Sense. There is a deeper layer with this device that I believe it
> leaves even more gaps than it actually fills. This gap is the Polaris Math
> app. True, this app is useful when you know how to use it, particularly
> when you need to send your teacher several coordinent plain graphs as
> homework or in a test. The problem is that there isn’t enough
> information that’s out there that a blind person would benefit from.
> Today, I watched a vidio which left out a few very small but critical gaps
> such as where the graph button is for example. Vidios like this often
> helps the sited person more than the blind person who is required to use
> this app every time they go to turn a graph into their math professor.
> Again, there are too many people who promptly point out the usual
> resources which do have their place but they also don’t understand that
> such resources leave more gaps than they fill. We simply need more blind
> tech specialists to teach the non NASA brained college student. Even my
> own tech teacher is a non NASA brained blind tech teacher. Because of
> this, her skills are limited even though she specializes in teaching
> access technology. But she even needs such experts to farther expand her
> education.
> Braille books:
> I love braille dearly!!! However, I can’t stand the way textbook
> producers drag their feet with making braille textbooks when the schools
> who use them pay thousands of dollars just to make them. First of all, way
> too many hard copy braille textbooks are slower than the class that they
> are suposed to work in. My math class requires a textbook that my math
> teacher spasifically picked out for me to use in his class. I got the
> first part just fine and like normal. But from last week on, they got
> delayed. I waited a few days just in case the snail mail was delayed only
> to discover apon farther digging that they got delayed by at least 2
> weeks. Even without any other technical problem, this issue alone renders
> a blind person unable to do their homework independently. I now have to
> have a reader to cover this gap. I have also noticed some errors in the
> braille translation itself. Mind you, that’s not including the
> unrealistic expectation for a math student of any form to read 14 vollums
> of an encyclopitia styled textbook in 2 weeks. I scated around that by
> jumping dirrectly to the homework and studdying the rest as needed. In any
> case, those pesky hard copy braille books also address some bigger ethical
> issues that are gaps for decades.
> Braille graphics:
> Braille graphics are crazy and hard to produce. However, they are highly
> needed in the math and science fields. Because of this, graphs has to come
> up here. There has been talk of a piece of technology that’s suposed to
> make 2 demintional graphs. But where is it? Why hasn’t it ever made it
> on to the markets? This needs to be addressed now!!! For people like me, I
> can’t read a braille math book on my braille display and get the
> information that’s needed when it’s presented in the graphs that I
> would get in a hard copy braille text book. A 3D printer can’t address
> them because the graphs are 2 dementional, not 3 dementional. I have had a
> picture in my mind of a whole page that’s full of nothing but braille
> pixles that can pop up anywhere on the page to. Either write in regular
> braille text form, Nemeth Code, UEB code or graphs or the combination.
> This kind of technology does not igzist. This kind of technology hasn’t
> even been invented yet. It’s 2019, not 1999 and I still have not seen
> such technology. I thought it would be out by now, particularly because of
> how fast most technology moves. Also, I would want this braille page of
> braille pixles to connect up to a braille note taker as needed. I would
> want to read my homework with this screen but with the note taker, I would
> also want to do my homework because a blind student couldn’t read their
> homework and write it at the same time which is what is needed by the
> student. Because of this, a blind person can’t work their math textbooks
> nor read graphs in less they are done in hard copy form. Hard copy takes
> up way too much space, is too comberson to be realistic and is also not
> always consistantly ethical because it’s not always on the same time,
> same place, same date and same leval playing field.
> With all that on the table, here is what this does to a blind person based
> on my own experiences. This slows the blind student way down, so much so,
> that the student in question can’t keep up with the class at all. They
> can’t independently do their homework without help and regarding the
> technology, without the correct knowledge, the tech is rendered totally
> useless. There are far better ways to improve accessability. Why aren’t
> these issues even talked about, brought up nor even passed around in
> normal conversation? I don’t even know the answer. But I know that there
> are still way too many dangerous gaps that need to be filled in order to
> get more blind students into the STEM fields. What do you all think of the
> ethics of these gaps?
>
>
> Thank you for taking the time to read this E Mail!
> Blessed be!!!
> Kendra Schaber,
>  Chemeketa Community College,
>  350 Org,
> Citizen’s Climate Lobby,
> National Federation of the Blind of Oregon, Capitol Chapter, Salem,
> Oregon.
>  Home email:
> Redwing731 at gmail.com
>  Chemeketa Community College Email:
>  Kschaber at my.Chemeketa.edu
> Phone:
> 971-599-9991
> "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear" Author Unknown.
>  Sent From My iPhone SE.
>  Sent from My Gmail Email.
>  Get Outlook Express for IOS.
>
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