[nabs-l] Fwd: research techniques and assistance

Mon Aug 25 13:55:47 UTC 2014

I think Justin meant to send this to the whole list

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: justin williams <justin.williams2 at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 09:53:05 -0400
Subject: RE: [nabs-l] research techniques and assistance
To: Mary Fernandez <trillian551 at gmail.com>

I take each paper as a separate entity as far as accessibility is concerned.
I take a day of two and just do the research.  In other words, I have no
intent to write the paper, but to simply get the articles I want and figure
out my base for the paper.  Folks, I spend 6 to 8 hours, but I get 6 to 7
articles and sometimes more, though I have found any more than about 9 or 10
more cumbersome  then helpful.  I work  out all the accessibility issues
before I do anything with writing the paper.  Don't forget your nls books,
or books on the blio.  Sometimes the articles are pdfs, and other times they
are web based; I try to stick to web based, but that is not always possible.
Pdfs can be made accessible in a variety of ways, but sometimes, none of
those ways are adequate; the article can still become unusable.  I have
found google scholar inaccessible for obtaining the articles, If someone has
a tip for this, please share.  I write down my citations for each articles
and save them in a separate file.

-----Original Message-----
From: Mary Fernandez [mailto:trillian551 at gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, August 25, 2014 9:44 AM
To: justin williams; National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] research techniques and assistance

All,
I think this is a fabulous topic! First, research skills are ones which are
not necessarily intuitive, and which all successful college students learn
to refine and perfect throughout their college career.
Unfortunately, there are numerous accessibility barriers with databases and
eBooks, which others have access too readily. Part of the answer, and
Ashley, you are on the right track, is to learn how to most effectively use
databases, and search tools like Google Scholar.
Most universities have workshops that students can attend, and which focus
specifically on research, many times even by topic. Through my senior year
in college, it wasn't strange for a class, which had a major research paper
do at the end of the semester, to have a class scheduled at the library, and
have a reference librarian show us the tips and tricks. The other half of
the equation, is to be creative with using your assistive software, a lot of
times websites are inaccessible enough to be a nightmare, but sometimes
there is a hidden work around, like using the different cursor modes in
Jaws, right clicking instead of pressing enter, etc. This makes things more
time consuming than they ought to be, but unfortunately, until we can get
this trend of technology being developed inaccessibly reversed, we must live
with that reality.
As far as articles, that's part of research. You do your best to narrow down
the material you get back by using good search terminology, by categorizing,
by reading the abstract, but at one point you have to just read the
articles. No one article is going to give you all the information your need,
that's why you use so many citations at the end of the day, because one part
of one paper may be of relevance, but the other twenty pages aren't. Good
research takes time, and the better you get at it, the better you become at
using that time more efficiently.
As far as PDFs, I've been suggesting to students to ask for Adobe Pro from
VR or to purchase it if possible. If you take the time to learn some
accessibility remediation techniques with Adobe, many tutorials are
available online, you can tag your own pdfs and fix reading order and
navigation. It won't be perfect, but at least it'll make them legible.
Kurzweil 1000 is also incredibly useful. If it's 2 AM and the paper is due
in six hours, not that I've ever been there, you can save pdfs to your pc,
run them through Kurzweil and that way the articles become legible if not
perfect.
Last, not all databases are created equal. Depending on your subject, you
may want to filter through subjects when choosing databases, for the
humanities I  found EPSCO databases to be really accessible, Jstor,
PsychInfo, the Oxford databases, and quite a few others were very good. And
some won't be. There are so many tips and tricks to conducting research, so
I strongly suggest seeing if a college does those research workshops, and
just taking the time to figure out what works for you and what doesn't.
Unfortunately, there isn't a universal answer when it comes to
accessibility. We must advocate for manufacturers and universities to become
responsible for only procuring and implementing accessible learning tools,
but that's a battle that has to be fought outside the research library!
Thanks.
Mary

On 8/25/14, justin williams via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> It just depends on what I am looking for; I take pieces parts of
> several articles, and just put them together into a research paper.
> It helps to no something about your topic.  If you have no knowledge
> about a topic, get a book from nls to start you off, then fine your
articles.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Sofia
> Gallo via nabs-l
> Sent: Monday, August 25, 2014 7:33 AM
> To: Helga Schreiber; National Association of Blind Students mailing
> list
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] research techniques and assistance
>
> I also have to read a lot of the article to see if it's relevant but I
> thought this was true for everyone?
>
> Sofia
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Aug 25, 2014, at 4:10 AM, Helga Schreiber via nabs-l
>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hi all! I have the same questions as Ashley. For me, research is not
>> so easy as well!! Hope to hear from you soon. Thanks  so much and God
>> bless!!  :-)
>>
>> Helga Schreiber
>>
>> Fundraiser Coordinator for Phi Theta Kappa, Alpha Delta Iota chapter.
>> Member of National Federation of the Blind and Florida Association of
>> Blind Students.
>> Member of the International Networkers Team (INT).
>> Independent Entrepreneur of the Company 4Life Research.
>> Phone:  (561) 706-5950
>> Email: helga.schreiber26 at gmail.com
>> Skype: helga.schreiber26
>> 4Life Website: http://helgaschreiber.my4life.com/1/default.aspx
>> INT Website: http://int4life.com/
>>
>> "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that
>> whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John
>> 3:16 Sent from my iPhone
>>
>>> On Aug 25, 2014, at 3:17 AM, Ashley Bramlett via nabs-l
>>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> Its been my experience that research is very challenging. Have you
>>> run into these issues?
>>>
>>> Not all databases are fully accessible, although that has been
>>> better in the past couple years.
>>> For instance, academic search complete and other Search complete
>>> databases do not let you change the combo box from the default and
>>> to read "or". This means it would look for search terms A and B or
>>> search term C.
>>>
>>> Other challenges I've had are evaluating if the article is relevant.
>>> I do read abstracts first and think through it. It seems like I read
>>> most of an article only to realize its not relevant.
>>> Also, some articlesare pdfs with words smashed together; I end up
>>> asking a reader to read them.
>>>
>>> What assistance have you had with research? All school libraries
>>> have reference librarians at a certain desk. Do you just ask them
>>> where to look? Have you needed or wanted more help learning the
>>> databases and electronic references? Has the librarians worked  1 on
>>> 1 with you? At the community college and my university, Marymount,
>>> they did assist me a little privately to get me started. They gave
>>> me specific instructions on what to click on and which boxes to
>>> check to get what I needed. I needed to limit to full text, for
>>> instance; also if I needed recent articles, I was taught how to write in
the date range.
>>>
>>> These references seem inaccessible. Was that your experience?
>>>
>>> a.. Encyclopedia Britanica
>>> b.. Credo reference
>>> c.. Gale biography in context
>>>
>>>
>>> Also, books are not accessible and libraries have lots of them.
>>> How do you direct readers to find what you need? I've tried asking
>>> for headings and table of contents. This does not always work. Is
>>> skimming relevant chapters the best thing?
>>>
>>> Thanks.
>>> Ashley
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--
Mary Fernandez
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what
you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
--
Maya Angelou

-- 
Mary Fernandez
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will
forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them
feel."
--
Maya Angelou