[nfbcs] Technical gaps that need to be filled for math classes.

Mon Feb 4 16:51:37 UTC 2019

I also tend to find the ambiguous language of a live person to be harder to follow than a manual. I also much prefer manuals to all these product videos that seem to have become the default recently.

> On Feb 4, 2019, at 8:47 AM, Tracy Carcione via nfbcs <nfbcs at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> All I can say is that, within the last 2 years,  I've taught myself to use
> 2 devices by reading the manual.  Maybe I got lucky, but I didn't find it
> all that hard.  I am impatient with manuals, and they sometimes leave out
> information, but mostly I've used them successfully, and gotten where I
> want to be in a shorter time than I would have waiting for someone to
> train me in person. I guess I'm even more impatient with waiting on
> someone else than I am with reading.
> Tracy
> 
>> Unfortunately there is a massive market in the book publishing, on-line
>> training, and in-person training areas for this very reason.  The "manual"
>> or "study guide" provided by the producer of the product is normally the
>> least useful modality for the actual consumer of the device or product to
>> use.  The problem that is being discussed is pervasive and most
>> prevalently pertaining to complex electronic software or devices.  Most
>> people are not capable of actually teaching themselves to use a device nor
>> do they have the patience, which is why actual manuals rarely exist
>> anymore.  When they are produced, they are rarely written by a qualified
>> communicator of the information.  Actual Technical writing is a skillset
>> that rarely encountered and even fewer of the technical writers have
>> worked with a person that has a background in Educational Psychology or
>> curriculum development.
>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: nfbcs <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Tracy Carcione via
>> nfbcs
>> Sent: Sunday, February 3, 2019 10:10 AM
>> To: 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List' <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
>> Cc: Tracy Carcione <carcione at access.net>
>> Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Technical gaps that need to be filled for math
>> classes.
>> 
>> I have found that often there is no substitute for reading the manual when
>> trying to learn a new accessible device.  I know, we all want to take the
>> thing out of the box, turn it on, and start working, but, in my
>> experience, it usually doesn't work that way.  I too hate to RTFM, but, in
>> the end, it saves a lot of time and aggravation.  It's nice to have
>> someone else sit and explain things, but often there just isn't that
>> helpful person around.
>> I didn't grow up with Youtube and Google.  I find Google helpful, but
>> Youtube not so much.  And neither is really a replacement for sitting down
>> and reading the basics laid out in a manual or user's guide (except for
>> using Google to find an online version of said manual.) It's a pain in the
>> neck; it takes extra time; but it pays off in the long run.
>> Doing stuff as a blind person often just takes longer than it does for a
>> sighted person.  But, with some study and ingenuity, one can find little
>> tricks that speed up the process a bit.  Still, I remember in college
>> feeling like I had to work much longer hours than my sighted peers.
>> Annoying, stressful, but that's what it took to reach my goal.
>> And, annoying as it is, it is good to learn in school how to find the
>> resources you need, because you won't get anywhere near so much help out
>> in the work world.
>> Sorry if this sounds harsh, but there it is.
>> Tracy
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kendra Schaber
>> via nfbcs
>> Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2019 8:11 PM
>> To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List
>> Cc: Kendra Schaber
>> Subject: [nfbcs] Technical gaps that need to be filled for math classes.
>> 
>> Technical gaps that need to be filled for math classes.
>> Hi all!
>> I’m taking college algebra which has an awesome teacher and awesome
>> support from my school’s Disability Services. Dispite this awesome
>> support, the longer I’m in this class, the farther south I seem to be
>> treading. No, it’s not entirely because I can’t solve a quadradic
>> equation to save my life. It’s because I keep running into some major
>> ethical and technical gaps that really need to be filled. I have an Orien
>> TI84 graphic calculator, a Polaris Braille Sense with the Polaris Math
>> app, a Dell laptop computer with both JAWS and NVDA installed on it, an
>> iPhone SE with Voice Over and of course, this math class requires braille
>> textbooks.
>> I’m not here to ask for spasific help in one area here. But I have
>> quickly spotted some major gaps that I think all math students are facing
>> that need to be dealt with asap.
>> Technology:”
>> Orien TI84 graphic calculator:
>> This graphic calculator is an awesome tool when you have mastered it. The
>> ethical problem here is for those of us who are in our 30s and who are
>> also not computer programers and who are also not young enough to have a
>> sixth sense on how to figure out how to work technology. I’m one of the
>> amiture folks who knows how to work technology once I have learned how to
>> use this technology. I have noticed that the calculator is not as simular
>> to the normal vertions as everyone wants you to believe. Whenever I have
>> gone and had a sited person, tutor or teacher show me how to work this
>> calculator, we often run into technical hang ups with the accessibility.
>> For example, just before this writing, I was sitting in my math classroom
>> after class itself had ended with my math teacher. He was walking me
>> through how to discover the minamun point on a coordinent plane. We have
>> noticed how much I’m slowed down when reading the points to hunt for
>> this minamum. My teacher and I couldn’t figure out how to get the
>> calculator to quickly list off this information without spending five
>> minutes, (not egzaderating) just to read through the points to find the
>> minamum. We have noticed that if I were to get ten of this kind of problem
>> in my homework, that if I were to try this kind of problem without a pair
>> of sited eyeballs, it would take me literarly, all day just to get through
>> just that set of ten math problems. This example is just one of a few that
>> I could list off the top of my head that are of this nature. While I’m
>> on the same thread, this ethical technical issue also connects up to a
>> bigger picture. I have noticed that everyone wants to point people like me
>> to the usual resources like the school’s tutoring center, etutoring and
>> of course, Professor U Tube and Professor Google and the manuals that are
>> better served in the recycling bin. Sure, everything but the mannuals do
>> have their place. Don’t get me wrong! But for people like me who are not
>> born with NASA technical brains, we actually need our own teacher who
>> already knows this calculator and who can actually teach better than the
>> tutors that come from most school’s tutoring centers. The ethical issue
>> is just as much a technical issue. These experts don’t igzist in most
>> places where accessible tech is taught. I had to put out a call for help
>> on the math list. Luckily, I managed to get a blind calculus student in
>> college who knows this calculator. But I could just as easily have not
>> found any one at all who could help me out. I also got more of the
>> expected feedback in which I was told to go to the usual resources. But
>> what people don’t truely don’t understand is that those resources
>> leave just as many gaps as they fill whenever they do help out. Also, the
>> U Tube vidios have so much visual information that they leave more gaps
>> for a blind audience than they actually give to that same audience. Also,
>> when you do run into something that is remotely useful, it costs an arm
>> and a leg for those of us on SSI. So, either way, we are doomed for
>> aquiring the right resources that are actually going to assist us normal
>> non NASA brained folks.
>> The Polaris Braille Sense:
>> The Polaris Braille Sense is even more of a specialty piece of technology
>> than the calculator. This awesome braille note taker is so new that there
>> is not enough useful information that is presented in such a way that a
>> blind person would benefit from when trying to learn how to use this note
>> taker by using U Tube vidios. Just like the calculator, there are not
>> enough specialty tech teachers who knows how to work this device. As the
>> result, it can and does take months just to learn how to use the Polaris
>> Braille Sense. There is a deeper layer with this device that I believe it
>> leaves even more gaps than it actually fills. This gap is the Polaris Math
>> app. True, this app is useful when you know how to use it, particularly
>> when you need to send your teacher several coordinent plain graphs as
>> homework or in a test. The problem is that there isn’t enough
>> information that’s out there that a blind person would benefit from.
>> Today, I watched a vidio which left out a few very small but critical gaps
>> such as where the graph button is for example. Vidios like this often
>> helps the sited person more than the blind person who is required to use
>> this app every time they go to turn a graph into their math professor.
>> Again, there are too many people who promptly point out the usual
>> resources which do have their place but they also don’t understand that
>> such resources leave more gaps than they fill. We simply need more blind
>> tech specialists to teach the non NASA brained college student. Even my
>> own tech teacher is a non NASA brained blind tech teacher. Because of
>> this, her skills are limited even though she specializes in teaching
>> access technology. But she even needs such experts to farther expand her
>> education.
>> Braille books:
>> I love braille dearly!!! However, I can’t stand the way textbook
>> producers drag their feet with making braille textbooks when the schools
>> who use them pay thousands of dollars just to make them. First of all, way
>> too many hard copy braille textbooks are slower than the class that they
>> are suposed to work in. My math class requires a textbook that my math
>> teacher spasifically picked out for me to use in his class. I got the
>> first part just fine and like normal. But from last week on, they got
>> delayed. I waited a few days just in case the snail mail was delayed only
>> to discover apon farther digging that they got delayed by at least 2
>> weeks. Even without any other technical problem, this issue alone renders
>> a blind person unable to do their homework independently. I now have to
>> have a reader to cover this gap. I have also noticed some errors in the
>> braille translation itself. Mind you, that’s not including the
>> unrealistic expectation for a math student of any form to read 14 vollums
>> of an encyclopitia styled textbook in 2 weeks. I scated around that by
>> jumping dirrectly to the homework and studdying the rest as needed. In any
>> case, those pesky hard copy braille books also address some bigger ethical
>> issues that are gaps for decades.
>> Braille graphics:
>> Braille graphics are crazy and hard to produce. However, they are highly
>> needed in the math and science fields. Because of this, graphs has to come
>> up here. There has been talk of a piece of technology that’s suposed to
>> make 2 demintional graphs. But where is it? Why hasn’t it ever made it
>> on to the markets? This needs to be addressed now!!! For people like me, I
>> can’t read a braille math book on my braille display and get the
>> information that’s needed when it’s presented in the graphs that I
>> would get in a hard copy braille text book. A 3D printer can’t address
>> them because the graphs are 2 dementional, not 3 dementional. I have had a
>> picture in my mind of a whole page that’s full of nothing but braille
>> pixles that can pop up anywhere on the page to. Either write in regular
>> braille text form, Nemeth Code, UEB code or graphs or the combination.
>> This kind of technology does not igzist. This kind of technology hasn’t
>> even been invented yet. It’s 2019, not 1999 and I still have not seen
>> such technology. I thought it would be out by now, particularly because of
>> how fast most technology moves. Also, I would want this braille page of
>> braille pixles to connect up to a braille note taker as needed. I would
>> want to read my homework with this screen but with the note taker, I would
>> also want to do my homework because a blind student couldn’t read their
>> homework and write it at the same time which is what is needed by the
>> student. Because of this, a blind person can’t work their math textbooks
>> nor read graphs in less they are done in hard copy form. Hard copy takes
>> up way too much space, is too comberson to be realistic and is also not
>> always consistantly ethical because it’s not always on the same time,
>> same place, same date and same leval playing field.
>> With all that on the table, here is what this does to a blind person based
>> on my own experiences. This slows the blind student way down, so much so,
>> that the student in question can’t keep up with the class at all. They
>> can’t independently do their homework without help and regarding the
>> technology, without the correct knowledge, the tech is rendered totally
>> useless. There are far better ways to improve accessability. Why aren’t
>> these issues even talked about, brought up nor even passed around in
>> normal conversation? I don’t even know the answer. But I know that there
>> are still way too many dangerous gaps that need to be filled in order to
>> get more blind students into the STEM fields. What do you all think of the
>> ethics of these gaps?
>> 
>> 
>> Thank you for taking the time to read this E Mail!
>> Blessed be!!!
>> Kendra Schaber,
>> Chemeketa Community College,
>> 350 Org,
>> Citizen’s Climate Lobby,
>> National Federation of the Blind of Oregon, Capitol Chapter, Salem,
>> Oregon.
>> Home email:
>> Redwing731 at gmail.com
>> Chemeketa Community College Email:
>> Kschaber at my.Chemeketa.edu
>> Phone:
>> 971-599-9991
>> "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear" Author Unknown.
>> Sent From My iPhone SE.
>> Sent from My Gmail Email.
>> Get Outlook Express for IOS.
>> 
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