[nabs-l] Chemistry Braille Code

Thu Jun 5 17:03:44 UTC 2014

Hi Chris,

I am far removed from chemistry as I did not study that in college,
but I do remember the beginning of chemistry class with my braille
textbook. There was never an explicit IEP goal for me to learn
chemistry code, and although I had learned Nemeth, I had learned a
subset of Nemeth based on the classes I had taken pretty informally
through my textbooks. So I did encounter some symbols that I did not
know the meaning of. The most helpful thing I did was to ask someone
next to me to read a couple of chemistry equations out loud. As they
read the equation, I was able to parse which symbols were indicators
of changes from letters to numbers and which symbols actually
represented the numbers and element abbreviations. I was very
frustrated before it occurred to me to ask someone for a bit of help,
but after 5 minutes, I understood the notation. I think that as you go
through your class and consider whether you want to take more advanced
chemistry, you can take initiative to seek out more complex Nemeth
symbols, but in my memory, I don't remember the quick lesson on
notations putting me behind.

If your textbook has arrived, you can of course take a volume home
just for fun and begin to figure it out yourself.

I also highly recommend that you get a periodic table in braille,
super important!

I used a Velcro kit to make chemical structures and to represent
bonds. Differently shaped Velcro pieces allowed for variety and I
could indicate on a key what the shapes meant whether they represented
different elements or different parts of an atom. I used skinny Velcro
strips to represent bonds and placed multiple strips between atoms
depending on what type of bond it was.

When I was in high school, I wrote out my homework and quizzes on my
laptop and my teacher and I had an understanding of how I would
textually represent a symbol if there was a symbol that was difficult
to make, but I did the superscript numbers just fine. You could of
course consider learning LaTex to assist you with making the more
complex symbols which could be a summer project. There is a lot of
support for LaTex in general as well as through the blind math
community.

Finally, when I was reading the Jernigan newsletter this morning, I
was reminded of the organized blindmath archives called Blind Gems.
Check them out on blindscience.org.

Cindy

On 6/5/14, Aleeha Dudley via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hi,
> I used a tactile drawing kit to draw anything that I needed to in my
> chemistry courses. The chemistry code is incorporated into nemeth so that
> shouldn't be a huge problem if you have a Braille  textbook.
> Hope that helps,
> Aleeha
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Jun 5, 2014, at 10:04 AM, Lillie Pennington via nabs-l
>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Chris
>> I am taking chem next year and if I recall correctly my teacher told me
>> that there were no special symbols. I could try seeing if the electronic
>> copy of my textbook raises any Braille red flags. I know everyone's
>> situation is different but I would suspect that the courses are similar.
>> There are also files with the symbols for the various Braille codes that I
>> did not find particularly helpful because they did not encompass all of
>> the symbols I needed to know.
>> Btw, do you have a periodic table and a way to draw atoms?
>> Hth
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>>> On Jun 5, 2014, at 7:59 AM, Chris Nusbaum via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Good Morning Everyone,
>>>
>>> I hope everyone is having a wonderful start to the summer season and that
>>> those of us who must still try to conquer end-of-school burnout are
>>> overcoming it or at least trying to.
>>>
>>> So I'm taking Chemistry 1 next year and trying to prepare. I'm told that
>>> there is a specific Braille code used for chemistry, which I think is a
>>> part of the Nemeth Code. One of my IEP goals for this year is to learn
>>> the code in preparation for my class next semester. However, my TVI does
>>> not know the choistry code very well at all and therefore has not even
>>> started work on it. So my question is this: how detailed is the chemistry
>>> code, if there in fact is one? To those of you who have taken chemistry
>>> courses, did learning the Braille code require much preparation time
>>> prior to the start of the class? Like other math subjects, could I learn
>>> the relevant symbols as I need them in the class and not fall behind? My
>>> concern is that with only a week of school left, I will not be able to
>>> have the time I need to learn the code and could begin the course with a
>>> very limited knowledge of the code I need to use. I would appreciate any
>>> and all thoughts from those who have experience with chemistry and the
>>> associated Braille code.
>>>
>>> Thanks in advance,
>>> Chris Nusbaum
>>>
>>> Sent from my iPhone
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-- 
Cindy Bennett
Secretary: National Association of Blind Students

B.A. Psychology, UNC Wilmington
clb5590 at gmail.com