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

[Amanda Lacy]

Hi Kevin,  I'd like to believe it, I really would. But I watched the blind
students who came after me struggle with the exact same issues. They didn't
benefit from my work. I can conceive of systems of education that give
blind students a fail shot at math but they don't exist. I need evidence
for optimism, otherwise it's dishonest.

On Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 10:06 AM Kevin via nfbcs <nfbcs at nfbnet.org wrote:

> That seems a bit negative to me.  Change happens often in ways we don't
> see.  We can also be a part of that change.
>
>
> On 1/30/2019 8:40 PM, Amanda Lacy via nfbcs wrote:
> > Hi Kendra,
> >
> > I was on the Blind Math list for at least 10 years and almost nothing
> > has changed in that time.
> > Nothing's gonna change either, not unless those "NASA-brain people"
> > completely rethink the way blind people read, write and learn math.
> > Even if that happens, don't expect the disabled office staff at any
> > college to understand anything about blind people and math.
> >
> > A full-page Braille display that can do graphics, etc. doesn't exist
> > because the cost to produce it is enormous. You'd have a zillion tiny
> > moveable breakable parts, produced for a tiny minority of Braille
> > readers within the small minority of blind people. The market is tiny
> > and the parts aren't cheap. I touched a graphics display at CSUN so
> > progress is happening sloooooowly.
> > But I won't get excited until standard tablets for sighted people have
> > tactile screens. Then the price goes down for everyone.
> >
> > Life is hard.
> >
> > On 1/30/19, Kendra Schaber via nfbcs <nfbcs at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> >> 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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