[Athen] math note-taking support

[Andrea L. Dietrich]

You could look into hiring a C-Print or Typewell captionist who is trained in using "math mode" to type equations in something close to real time, and then connect the output to a refreshable Braille display, maybe? That's probably as close to real-time as you could get although there may be a trick to getting the output to convert to the correct Braille in real time. Something to look into maybe?

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Andrea Dietrich
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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 6:29 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
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Natalie Davison, MS, CRC ( she / her / hers )
Access Coordinator, Assistive Technology Senior

Educational Access Center Boise State University



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