[Athen] Biology Diagrams in distance education class

[Wink Harner]

In re #3, with Evernote, the LS pen cast can be shared remotely with the
student. Much less awkward & time consuming.

Cheers,

Wink
On Jun 13, 2014 3:52 PM, "Sean Keegan" <skeegan at stanford.edu> wrote:


> Hi Lorraine,

>

> A few questions:

>

> 1) Does the student read any braille or at least have some familiarity

> with braille/tactile graphics? I realize you mentioned the student relies

> on information being verbally described, but I am just trying to get a

> sense of how significant is the tactile limitation.

>

> 2) Would the student have access to an embosser or PIAF machine?

>

> 3) Are you able to send hard-copy materials to the student in a timely

> manner?

>

>

> I think you have a few options to consider, although none of them may be

> the ideal solution alone.

>

> 1) Create text descriptions for the relevant parts of the images being

> used in the course and provide this information as you would alt text or

> within the reading materials itself. IMO, this may be a bit too generic and

> while it could satisfy basic web accessibility guidelines, it may not be

> all that helpful to the student participating in the course.

>

> That said, I suppose you could also hire someone to record verbal

> descriptions of the images/information and post those to the course

> interface for the student to access.

>

> 2) Create tactile graphics of the images that cannot be described in text.

> For images that are complex, you may need to break the image into more

> simplified representations so as to ensure the tactile components are

> sufficiently emphasized. By this, I mean one image may have two or three

> tactile versions to maintain clarity of communication.

>

> 3) Use a bit of #2 above, but involve the use of a Livescribe Pen. You

> could create the tactile graphic and at the end of some reference line

> attach a piece of Livescribe paper. Using a Livescribe Pen, you could then

> provide a description for what is being represented. You would have to send

> the Livescribe Pen back and forth to record the appropriate content or

> possibly use more than one pen (here's an example of recording content:

> http://cnettv.cnet.com/take-better-notes-livescribe-echo-smartpen/9742-1_53-50129234.html).

> The student could touch the lines and then use the reference line to "find"

> the Livescribe Pen region and then use the pen to listen to whatever was

> recorded for that part of the image.

>

> 4) Similar to #3 above, but use the Livescribe Pen paper as the paper upon

> which the tactile graphic is delivered. Then you do not have to cut out

> pieces of Livescribe paper to attach to the tactile graphic.

>

> 5) Hire a reader.

>

>

> I am sure there are other (and better!) options available, but these are a

> few that jump to mind immediately. I think much of this will also depend on

> the student's ability to work with the materials and what may be realistic

> options given the short duration of the online class.

>

> Take care,

> Sean

>

>

> On Jun 13, 2014, at 1:49 PM, "Norwich, Lorraine S" <lnorwich at bu.edu>

> wrote:

>

> HI

>

> We have a blind student in a distance education program who has to take a

> Biology class.  The class is 7 weeks with a lot of diagrams embedded in the

> distance education blackboard course.  She does not have good tactile

> ability and relies on information being verbally described.

>

> Any ides, thoughts  on how to make this work would be helpful

>

> Sorry about cross posting

>

> Thanks

>

> Lorraine

>

>

>

>

>

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