[Athen] Visually Impaired Student Completing Math Homework

[Susan Gjolmesli]

Just a question...Why are you forcing the student to use technology he is not familiar with?  Why is it you are providing more barriers for the student rather than working a solution for him that is more within the scope of what is familiar to him?

As a blind person who uses JAWs but is not a geek...who struggles with each upgrade and every change that is thrown my way I can empathize with this student.  Add to that the fact that he is ESL I cannot  imagine...

Technology is what it is...imperfect.  Interfaces with Jaws....especially with something as concrete as math will be challenging - even to sighted individuals.   

Work innovatively minus the technology...my two cents.

S.

Susan Gjolmesli, Director
Disability Resource Center, B132
Phone: (425) 564-2498
http://www.bellevuecollege.edu/drc/


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-----Original Message-----
From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Maria Bohn
Sent: Monday, September 14, 2015 6:55 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network
Subject: Re: [Athen] Visually Impaired Student Completing Math Homework

Could you make it one of his accommodations to turn in homework via recorder? Or have a scribe for homework if the Professor will not accept the recorded homework. I would think the student cannot write the mathematical equations himself without assistance. I am not sure of the math type and if that will work in this situate . Or have someone sit with him when he uses Math talk/Dragon  - to make sure it is outputting the way he is speaking it?


Maria Bohn
Senior Resource Accommodation Specialist Assistive Technology Office of Specialized Services Bergen Community College

From: <Dimac>, Marcie <mdimac at kent.edu<mailto:mdimac at kent.edu>>
Reply-To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Date: Monday, September 14, 2015 at 9:31 AM
To: "athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>" <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Subject: [Athen] Visually Impaired Student Completing Math Homework

Morning all,

I have a rather unique (I think) situation here and would love some feedback.

Student:Doctoral level, pure mathematics students, from Vietnam. This student has been in the United States for about a month, has very little English speaking skills but seems to understand English well. The student is blind, and in Vietnam, his accommodations were drastically different from what they are/will be here.

In Vietnam:An actual person would read his textbooks and homeworks aloud to him, at his convenience. The student knows how to use JAWS (on version 14) but has never used it to read mathematical content. The student was able to vocally dictate his answers into a recorder and turn the recorder in to the professor as homework submissions.

At Kent State:We  have hired mathematical content editors (doctoral level) to edit his books and homeworks with Mathtype and we have worked with the student to understand JAWS (v. 16) so he can use it to navigate mathematical content. None of his books were already available in audio format and must be formatted from "scratch". The student is insistent that we provide a reader for his textbooks and homework, which we are currently not providing, (as we are editing the  books to be compatible/readable with JAWS 16).

Current Concern:The student came in on Friday and informed us that he had submitted an audio recording of himself answering the questions for his latest homework assignment and the professor had rejected the work. We are asking if anyone has ANY technology solutions for this situation. I have looked into Dragon and Mathtalk, but I'm pretty sure you need to be sighted to use this.

Any thoughts?

Thanks :)

Marcie Anne Dimac, M.A. Ed.

Coordinator, Assistive Technology
Student Accessibility Services
DeWeese Health Center, Room 23
Kent, Ohio      44242

Email: mdimac at kent.edu<mailto:mdimac at kent.edu>

Phone: 330-672-3391

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