[Athen] any help available on what physics lab equipment to choose, or how to adapt it?

[Kathleen Cahill]

Talking Logger Pro has plug-ins for Window Eyes and JAWS.
http://independencescience.com/product-view.php?p=22

Kathy

Kathleen Cahill
MIT Assistive Technology Information Center (ATIC)
77 Mass. Ave. 7-143
Cambridge MA 02139
(617) 253-5111
kcahill at mit.edu





On 1/14/15, 8:45 AM, "Linda Petty" <linda.petty at utoronto.ca> wrote:


>Looking for screen reader: NVDA, ORCA, JAWS or Window-Eyes access to

>physics lab equipment read outs...

>Thanks

>

>Linda Petty, O.T. Reg. (Ont.)

>Assistive Technology Consultant

>AccessAbility Services

>a division of Student Affairs

>

>UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO SCARBOROUGH

>Science Wing, Room SW302G

>1265 Military Trail, Toronto, Ontario  M1C 1A4

>Direct Line: 416-208-5144

>Tel/TTY (appointments): 416-287-7560

>Fax: 416-287-7334

>www.utsc.utoronto.ca/ability

>

>Tomorrow is created here.

>This electronic message and all contents contain information that may be

>privileged, confidential or otherwise protected from disclosure. The

>information is intended for the addressee(s) only. If you are not an

>addressee, any disclosure, copy, distribution or use of the contents of

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>

>

>

>   1. more details on physics lab equipment (Linda Petty)

>

>

>----------------------------------------------------------------------

>

>Message: 1

>Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2015 21:37:31 +0000

>From: Linda Petty <linda.petty at utoronto.ca>

>To: "athen-list at u.washington.edu" <athen-list at u.washington.edu>

>Subject: [Athen] more details on physics lab equipment

>Message-ID:

>	<AD9D869F5982EF4084F98C6B8C5E7BAB3041F9DA at arborexmbx4.UTORARBOR.UTORAD.Ut

>oronto.ca>

>	

>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>

>>From Linda Petty

>Here is an excerpt from our physics lab technician's email to the

>student, as he is working on improving access. He has put into place a

>table with an outlet for charging, for easy and ergonomic access for the

>student, and also purchased a Braille labeler to label equipment.

>Here is his list of equipment, and the problem of getting data from the

>equipment that is comprehensible to a screen reader:

>

>"Thirdly, about accessible lab equipment. We have some digital

>multimeters with RS232 outputs of their data. The software that comes

>with the meters is for Windows. As it happens, last year one of our

>Physics students worked on a special project to program an Arduino to

>read this multimeter and present the data on the computer. She was not

>entirely successful in this goal. The biggest difficulty was in getting

>the data out of the meter and reading it properly. Further work on this

>project might result in success, and so I have obtained an Arduino and

>have been learning how to use it. So far so good, it's fun to learn a new

>skill. This is perhaps an area where you can help, especially where

>passing the data to your laptop is concerned.

>

>Our standard lab oscilloscopes also have RS232 ports, also with outdated

>Windows software. Not so useful. However, we also have a device called

>Circuitgear CGR-101. This is a small module with 2 inputs for

>oscilloscope leads and 1 output for a function generator. The CGR-101

>comes with software available in Windows, MacOS and Linux. All "open

>source". I installed the software on one of the lab iMacs and it works

>very nicely. You can try installing it on your laptop and see how it

>works for you. We will be happy to lend you one of the CGR-101 units to

>try out.

>

>The website for the company is at Syscompdesign.com.  Here is a link to

>the Linux software. They also have a LabView application for the product.

>

>We have some lab power supplies and precision digital multimeters from

>Keysight (formerly called Agilent). They have digital outputs through

>GPIB and RS232 ports. The associated software is called BenchVu and is

>Windows based. There is also a mobile app for iOS and Android devices. We

>might be able to access the data coming from the RS232 port and pass it

>on to your Linux laptop. That's another project to look into.

>

>Finally, I have ordered a product from National Instruments, the NI

>myDAQ. This product has digital and analog inputs and several software

>based instruments which run in a LabView application. LabView has some

>support for Linux, but I am not sure if the software for this particular

>product is available in Linux. Further research required here.

>

>So that's what we have so far. I welcome your comments and advice on how

>to proceed toward finding the solutions which will work best for you.

>From our department, we have some funding available to purchase some

>equipment and software, but it is not unlimited. So we need to prioritize

>and decide how best to spend the limited money.

>

>As for my work on developing tools & solutions, I'm already paid to work

>here, so my time is "free" as far as the accounts are concerned.

>Professionally, I welcome to opportunity to learn some new skills and

>make a positive contribution here. As a department we are committed to

>doing everything we can to help you access our physics labs and classes."

>

>-----Original Message-----

>From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu]

>On Behalf Of athen-list-request at mailman13.u.washington.edu

>Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2015 3:02 PM

>To: athen-list at u.washington.edu

>Subject: athen-list Digest, Vol 108, Issue 3

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>Today's Topics:

>

>   1. ? resource people/info on physics lab accessibility??	Please?

>      (Linda Petty)

>   2. Re: ? resource people/info on physics lab accessibility??

>      Please? (Lisa Brandt)

>

>

>----------------------------------------------------------------------

>

>Message: 1

>Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2015 17:00:31 +0000

>From: Linda Petty <linda.petty at utoronto.ca>

>To: "athen-list at u.washington.edu" <athen-list at u.washington.edu>

>Cc: Linda Petty <linda.petty at utoronto.ca>

>Subject: [Athen] ? resource people/info on physics lab accessibility??

>	Please?

>Message-ID:

>	<f6652d10-028f-4096-99d0-11065d63bbb0 at ARBOREXHUBX2.UTORARBOR.UTORAD.Utoro

>nto.ca>

>	

>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

>

>Hi!

>Our department is working with a first year student at the Univ. of

>Toronto, who is blind and uses Linux and Windows on a PC, accessed with

>ORCCA and NVDA respectively, as well as a Braille display. We have been

>working successfully this fall with use of NVDA and LaTeX for access to

>computer science course material, as well as a PIAF for creating tactile

>graphics of tutorial images. The student has also been taking physics,

>with lab partners to read out relevant data from experiments, and working

>with a physics lab technician and myself on finding ways of accessing the

>information from the various data measuring devices directly.

>

>Next year, the student will need to be able to access all of the

>information independently, instead of through lab partners. While this

>can be accommodated with a sited lab partner, we are looking to purchase

>tools or accessible interfaces or equipment so that the student can do

>this independently.

>

>Rather than send the complete list of equipment to the whole list, is

>there anyone has worked through these issues already, or can connect me

>to someone who works professionally in physics, using accessible

>equipment? If you could email me, off list, at linda.petty at utoronto.ca,

>or email the list if it's good general resources or info for everyone,

>I'd appreciate it.

>Thank you!

>

>Linda Petty, O.T. Reg. (Ont.)

>Assistive Technology Consultant

>AccessAbility Services

>a division of Student Affairs

>

>UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO SCARBOROUGH

>Science Wing, Room SW302G

>1265 Military Trail, Toronto, Ontario ?M1C 1A4 Direct Line:?416-208-5144

>Tel/TTY (appointments): 416-287-7560

>Fax: 416-287-7334

>www.utsc.utoronto.ca/ability

>

>Tomorrow is created here.

>This electronic message and all contents contain information that may be

>privileged, confidential or otherwise protected from disclosure. The

>information is intended for the addressee(s) only. If you are not an

>addressee, any disclosure, copy, distribution or use of the contents of

>this message is prohibited. If you have received this electronic message

>in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and destroy the

>original message and all copies.

>

>

>

>

>

>------------------------------

>

>Message: 2

>Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2015 09:53:05 -0800

>From: Lisa Brandt <lisa.brandt1 at pcc.edu>

>To: Access Technology Higher Education Network

>	<athen-list at u.washington.edu>

>Subject: Re: [Athen] ? resource people/info on physics lab

>	accessibility??	Please?

>Message-ID:

>	<CAEbem9x8b7jsh3beyzYX_ziR3JUj6SjF4etNRRQe-h7gL-16ng at mail.gmail.com>

>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

>

>I actually WOULD like to see a complete list of equipment if anyone has

>such a thing. :-)

>

>On Wed, Jan 7, 2015 at 9:00 AM, Linda Petty <linda.petty at utoronto.ca>

>wrote:

>

>> Rather than send the complete list of equipment to the whole list

>>

>

>Lisa

>--

>Lisa Brandt, PCC Disability Services

>Accessibility Technician

>Alternate Media Formats Technician

>971-722-4366

>SY CC 260

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