[Athen] math note-taking support

[Susan Kelmer]

That is a big ask, and I would say virtually impossible.  I do math conversion using Word and MathType and there's no way it's ever going to be "instant" no matter how fast the person is who is typing it.  And with LaTex, you're asking for someone who deeply knows the formatting of math in LaTex, which is an even bigger burden.

What about using a product like EquatiO?  It is a screenshot reader, and I believe it also has a phone app that can take a picture and render the LaTex?  It would still take time to transfer that from phone to the student needing it, but it wouldn't be hours.  My concern would be keeping up with the content capture, if the professor is fast.  Also, the person taking the pictures would need to be very close to the board so they could isolate the equation properly for conversion.

If you do find a solution, I'm sure we'd all like to know what worked, so we can add it to our toolbox.

Susan Kelmer
Alternate Format Production Program Manager
Disability Services
Health and Wellness Services
T 303 735 4836
www.colorado.edu/disabilityservices<http://www.colorado.edu/disabilityservices>


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From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Natalie Davison
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2024 4:29 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: [Athen] math note-taking support

Good afternoon,

I am working to consider options for an accommodation request that I am bringing to this group for any ideas or advice. I would appreciate hearing any experiences anyone has had with similar requests or innovative approaches to providing live notes for advanced STEM content, such as math equations, on the whiteboard in lecture courses.

A blind student in a math graduate program has historically received note-taking services through "note-processors" who type the notes provided in lecture (mainly whiteboard content), then convert them to a LaTex document and send this to the student post-lecture. The student has requested a revised note-taking accommodation that would allow her to receive the whiteboard content at the same rate as her peers in the course, instead of 24-48 hours after class, specifically on her refreshable braille display. My initial brainstorm figured this would involve a live typist in the course working in a LaTex document on the student's computer to type the whiteboard content (mainly math equations) so it would display as close to live as possible on the student's refreshable braille display. The barriers with this approach involve the difficulty finding a student who 1. wants this position, 2. can type fast enough, specifically in math notation, and 3. understands the upper-level math content. While LaTex is a "common math notation language", individuals who use and are fluent in it and understand the graduate level math are difficult to recruit. We have found one student who can meet these criteria, but only by using "snippets" that don't appear live in the LaTex document, but do appear at a slight delay. I would estimate the rate of notes provided by the note-taker is equivalent to the rest of the students in the course hand-writing their notes based on the whiteboard content.

The student asked if there was a professional service similar to CART or ASL interpreters that would provide live audio descriptions on the whiteboard content in her preferred format, but I am not aware of a service such as this or a vendor that provides it. If there is, I am interested in learning more about it, or similar services.

I thought that one close accommodation solution would be to retain the hired live note-taker to provide the service at a slight delay, but also remind the instructors to narrate visual or written content in the course and consistently check in on this.

TLDR- Has anyone worked on ways to instantly convert and transmit math data to a refreshable braille display?

Thank you,
Natalie Davison
--

Natalie Davison, MS, CRC ( she / her / hers )
Access Coordinator, Assistive Technology Senior

Educational Access Center Boise State University



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