[NFB-Science] How do I best deal with making graphs and using scientific instruments in my environmental science class?

Tue Sep 24 15:18:52 UTC 2019

Hi Kendra,

I would strongly recommend the SAS Graphics Accelerator:
https://support.sas.com/software/products/graphics-accelerator/index.html

It is a free google chrome extension that allows blind users to make and interpret graphs from tables. You can interpret the graph using sound and you can print off a copy of the graph to turn into the instructor. Because you are able to explore the graph by sound, you can also tell if the graph turned out correctly (x and y axes labels are correct, the correct datapoints were plotted, etc). You don't need to know any programming to use it. Your instructors could also use it to make audio graphs for you very easily.

Let me know if I can help you get set up with it.

Thanks,

Kevin Currin
PhD Candidate, bioinformatics and computational biology
Lab of Karen Mohlke
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
________________________________________
From: NFB-Science [nfb-science-bounces at nfbnet.org] on behalf of Kendra Schaber via NFB-Science [nfb-science at nfbnet.org]
Sent: Tuesday, September 24, 2019 10:50 AM
To: NFB Science and Engineering Division List
Cc: Kendra Schaber
Subject: Re: [NFB-Science] How do I best deal with making graphs and using scientific instruments in my environmental science class?

Hi all!
I totally get the whole concept of reading and interpreting graphs. However, as of now, I don’t have access to the tactile world except for hard copy braille and my braille display. As far as I know, braille displays don’t make scientific graphs. They only make sertain math graphs and perform calculations for math problems. This one is a totally different ball game. Part of the problem is efficency in being able to make a scientific graph with the redsources that I currently have, not resources in the future. Like in the climatology world, the future is actually my writing class and environmental science lab today, not the year 2100. Since I don’t have resources to the high tech braille printers, I’m looking for the most efficent and effective way to work with scientific graphs to survive my current environmental science class. I suspect the only way is a reader and scribe, even outside of my class. I’ll have to pick the brains of the school’s tutoring center and my accomidations specialist. I did suggest tables because they are the most accessable way to read the kind of information that’s found in a graph with a screen reader. Believe me, most sighted humans find graphs boring to read and because of that, it’s hard to get one who wouldn’t have to be paid an arm and a leg to accurately read one out loud. As it is, I’ve already had to advocate for tables to survive 350.ORG presentations because before most of the more scientific presentations stopped by general consensus of the group, 9 times out of ten, the presentor would have so much information that I always missed out. This is why I’m a strong believer in tables, not graphs. Since you can’t survive science class without graphs, I’m looking for the most effective way around this major problem and do it with the resources and lack there of that’s already available to me now!

"When the student is ready, the teacher will appear", Author Unknown.
Thank you for reading this email! Also, please note that I have eighth grade spelling. I'm well known for spelling mistakes. Ironicly, writing is one of my gifts.
Blessed  Be!
Kendra Schaber,
Student of Chemeketa Community College,
member of 350.ORG Salem,
Member of the National Federation of the Blind of Oregon, Capitol Chapter.
Writing on my Polaris Braille Sense.
Using both Gmail and Outlook.
Go Detroit, Red Wings! Go Pittsburgh, Penguins! Go Portland, Winterhawks! Go Baltimore, Oriels!  Go Baltimore, Ravens! Go Oregon State Beavers, baseball and football teams!

> On Sep 23, 2019, at 18:03, Elizabeth Mohnke via NFB-Science <nfb-science at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
> Hello Kendra,
>
> Accommodations like these depend on your skills and resources as well as the skills and resources of your college or university. Others have already given you some alternatives for creating graphs that can be handed in to your sighted professor. However, if you do not know how to use the technology they mentioned to you, or you do not have access to it, you can also use a reader or scribe to create graphs using pencil and paper.
>
> We were required to create a simple bar graph by hand in my general environmental biology class. However, I found that I had no trouble doing this using the reader who was assigned to work with me when working on lab assignments and other in-class activities. I know some blind students will pair up with another sighted classmate for this sort of thing. But I never found working with other sighted classmates to work well for me.
>
> Finally, if you are required to learn how to read and interpret graphs as a part of class, then I am not completely sure how receiving all your course materials as tables  will help you accomplish this goal. It seems to me that tactile graphics would be a more suitable alternative as turning graphical information into a table may alter the assignment or course goal of learning how to read and interpret graphs.
>
> I hope you can find the best way of dealing with this graphnical information for your class. I feel like tactile graphics should be considered and discussed for any math, science, or statistics class.
>
> Warm regards,
> Elizabeth
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NFB-Science [mailto:nfb-science-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kendra Schaber via NFB-Science
> Sent: Monday, September 23, 2019 5:00 PM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>; NFB Science and Engineering Division List <nfb-science at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Kendra Schaber <redwing731 at gmail.com>
> Subject: [NFB-Science] How do I best deal with making graphs and using scientific instruments in my environmental science class?
>
> Hi all!
> I know I don’t post very often in less I run into something major. I ran into something major today for my environmental science class. I wasn’t effected during the first class period itself. When I met up with my science teacher after class during my lunch break, some questions came up that I had some idea on how to answer but was missing critical information. How do I go about making graphs in an environmental science class? According to my science teacher, he informed me that I have to actually turn scientific data and promptly turn it intto a graph. Since I’m blind, there are some major accessability problems around any graph items that come up in any form. I told him to use tables instead of graphs when sending me information electronically. But it still doesn’t answer the question of how to make them. I’m not just talking about the graphs that most see in math classes. I’m talking about things like bar graphs, pie graphs, exponential graphs and simular. How do you all navigate this problem? Also, the other query came up with scientific equipment. One example is microscopes. I said that my in class assistant might be able to look into one for me and give me the information that’s acquired only via looking through a microscope. There might be other tools that I don’t know about, however, it still leaves yet another accessability gap with us blind science students. So, how do I navigate scientific measuring and data colecting instruments? Do I only use my in class aid or will I have to acquire additional tools? Can I use an in class assistant until I can get such tools? The earlier I know this information, the better off I’ll be. Thank you!!!
>
>
> "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear", Author Unknown.
> Thank you for reading this email! Also, please note that I have eighth grade spelling. I'm well known for spelling mistakes. Ironicly, writing is one of my gifts.
> Blessed  Be!
> Kendra Schaber,
> Student of Chemeketa Community College,
> member of 350.ORG Salem,
> Member of the National Federation of the Blind of Oregon, Capitol Chapter.
> Writing on my Polaris Braille Sense.
> Using both Gmail and Outlook.
> Go Detroit, Red Wings! Go Pittsburgh, Penguins! Go Portland, Winterhawks! Go Baltimore, Oriels!  Go Baltimore, Ravens! Go Oregon State Beavers, baseball and football teams!
>
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