[nabs-l] Fwd: research techniques and assistance

Mon Aug 25 17:54:50 UTC 2014

Derek,

I use my textbook too for general info and an overview of something. I 
usually need a reader  for that though because I need to look up that in the 
index and cannot do so with a audio version of the text.
Most of the time though its not in the text or it’s a paragraph so its not 
helpful.

Do you use the internet for sources or just to get started? My concern with 
internet is sites are not always authentic
but I've found some with .org domains to be okay at least to get started.

Thanks for the advice.

Ashley

-----Original Message----- 
From: Derek Manners via nabs-l
Sent: Monday, August 25, 2014 11:11 AM
To: justin williams ; National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Fwd: research techniques and assistance

I can't speak to the accessibility options but just generally, your research 
librarians are bored and would love to help you out. I rely on mine all the 
time. Also, I also tend to read a lot of articles that don't pan out so I 
also think this is pretty common.

I'd also agree with the comment about needing to know something about the 
topic. My approach is to google/Wikipedia the topic or topics first. Then 
check my textbook if the topic is in there. Then I do a little searching. 
But if I get stuck, I turn to the research librarian pretty quickly to get 
moving.

Best
Derek

PS
I use zoom text so that is why I can't speak to the accessibility options.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Aug 25, 2014, at 10:00 AM, justin williams via nabs-l 
> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
> Oops, How did that not go to the list?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Mary 
> Fernandez
> via nabs-l
> Sent: Monday, August 25, 2014 9:56 AM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Subject: [nabs-l] Fwd: research techniques and assistance
>
> 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
>
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