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

Fri Jul 27 14:34:18 UTC 2012

Actually, you don't need to be a member of those lists to search the archive.

You can go to www.nfbnet.org<http://www.nfbnet.org> and choose the 2nd link on the page for a complete search, or for blindmath specifically go to:
http://www.nfbnet.org/pipermail/blindmath_nfbnet.org

or for Blind Science specifically,
http://www.nfbnet.org/pipermail/nfb-science_nfbnet.org

Dave

From: social-sciences-list-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:social-sciences-list-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of cheryl fogle
Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2012 4:58 PM
To: Blind Social Scientists List
Subject: Re: [Social-sciences-list] reply to Maha's questions.

Hello Maha, Faiz, and list,

Statistics questions come across the blind science and blind math lists all the time.  I'd suggest subscribing to those lists if only for access to the archives.  Some questions may have already been answered.

I used an older version of spss for qualitative and quantative analysis for my dissertation.  It was version 15 because that was the one I bought several years ago.  My student license expired so I'm giving advice from memory.  I generally imported excel files and then selected the row and column ranges for the different analysis dialog boxes.  Then I always exported the output back to excel.  The results are still readable and I'm still referring to them as I revise my manuscript.  Sorry I don't have experience with 18.

Cheryl Fogle
Ph.D. candidate, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico

On 7/26/2012 3:52 AM, Faiz Rasool wrote:
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> [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<mailto: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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