[Social-sciences-list] reply to Maha's questions.

Thu Jul 26 09:52:06 UTC 2012

Hi Maha,

Unfortunately, SPSS is not completely accessible with jaws. It is  claimed
by IBM that from version 18 you can use the software by making few changes
in the path variable and replacing the accessibility. Properties file. After
making  the suggestive changes to improve the accessibility of SPSS with
jaws, I found that I could use the menus  e.g. open the  analyze menu to
request for a cross tabulation or run a simple linear regression. But  few
aspects of the programs e.g.   entering data directly in the data editor
window of SPSS was not possible  at least for me. When you try to use the
arrow keys to navigate in the data editor windows of SPSS jaws does not
always correctly report the location of the row  and column you are in. The
workaround I found was to first enter my data in excel, and then import it
to SPSS. Please note that I did not experienced any major difficulty in
assigning variable and value labels  in SPSS. The second major issue was
that   visually impaired users cannot directly read the content of the
output window of SPSs. Your option to read the output window is  to  export
the  output window as a  word or pdf file. Personally I found the option of
exporting as a word file very helpful as I could copy and move the tables in
other files e.g. course assignments.  Please note that other users have
reported few problems in setting up the location of the path variable and
replacing the accessibility.properties file. Dr. Jonathan who's on the list
has always   maintained that R is the best software option for blinds. I
personally have very limited experience of using R so I cannot offer much
advice myself.   But I think Dr. Jonathan has maintained a  website where
information on using R can be found. I'd  suggest that you should explore R
if possible. I used stata    for a limited time and found it to  work well
with jaws. My problem was that  course  instructor wanted  all the
assignments in MS word and I could not work out how to get the output of R
or Stata directly to mS word. With workarounds I was able to get the output
of SPSS to MS word though. Please note that it is not that the output of R
and stata cannot be sent to MS word it was just that I could not learn how
to in the limited time I had and there was no accessibility support office
to come to my help. 

Hope this helps,

Regards,

Faiz.

From: social-sciences-list-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:social-sciences-list-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Maha Khochen
Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2012 11:48 AM
To: Blind Social Scientists List
Subject: Re: [Social-sciences-list] introduction

Hi everyone,

My name is Maha. I am currently reading for my MPhil/PhD at the Institute of
Education, University of London- UK. My research is looking at the inclusion
of visually impaired learners in mainstream education in Lebanon, my home
country. It is so interesting to see this mailing list up and running. 

I have been looking for some advise on accessible qualitative software
package for a while. And was wondering if there is anyone on the list who
can advise? I have tried the NVivo but unfortunately it appeared that it is
not accessible with Jaws, the screen reader that I use to access
information. Any advise with this regard is very much appreciated. Note that
I have no residual vision.

Another thing, I am taking training on the SPSS software very soon, it would
be very much appreciated if I can have some advise based on your experience
whether it is accessible and that blind researchers can use it with no
problem. Alternatively, any advise for an accessible quantitative software
package would be very much appreciated too.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Maha

From: Morman, Ed <mailto:EMorman at nfb.org>  

Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2012 4:01 PM

To: social-sciences-list at nfbnet.org 

Subject: [Social-sciences-list] introduction

Dear Listmembers-

I'm pleased to see that my colleague Anna Kresmer has already joined the
list.  Like Anna, I am a sighted staff member at the NFB Jernigan Institute
in Baltimore.  I have a PhD in History of Science and worked for many years
in the field of history of medicine as a librarian, occasional teacher, and
not terribly productive researcher.  I know a wee bit about social science
research methods and have an avocational (extremely avocational) interest in
cognitive science.  Curiosity about how people construct their internal
model of the world without sight was part of the reason I was interested in
working for an organization related to blindness-especially a blind-led
organization of blind people.  I've been here for four years now and I'm
enthusiastic about NFB philosophy and its notion of what constitutes proper
training.  With Anna Kresmer and our colleague Lou Ann Blake, I've developed
something of an understanding of the history of the blind in the U.S. and
more specifically the history of the NFB.

I'll mainly be lurking, but might occasionally have something to say.  With
any luck it will be intelligent and even possibly helpful to other
listmembers.

Cordially,

Ed Morman

Edward T. Morman, MSLS, PhD

Director, Jacobus tenBroek Library

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND JERNIGAN INSTITUTE

200 East Wells Street

   at Jernigan Place

Baltimore MD 21230

410.659.9314 x2225

410.685.2340 (fax)

  _____  

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