Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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How to help visually impaired people understand physics? (self.Blind)
submitted by NiRK20
Hello, everyone. I'm new to these lands, but I'm here for a specific reason. I'm a student of physics in college, and at the beginning of this year, the course coordinator sent an e-mail about two students of our department who are blind. He asked if there was anyone who was willing to help them during the first semester of this year. I answered saying that I could help. Here in Brazil things are tough. At my university, there is a program to help visually impaired people, but is has no investment and do not work well. With the pandemic, things got even harder for these two students. So the coordinator, as the only hope remaining, asked for any students who would offer to help them.
We finished the first semester today, and I helped one of them the best way I could. I searched for methods I could use, but it is hard to find something useful, mainly because we were studying online. He was able to understand and apply the general concepts, but deeply analysis were harder to him. I still want to help him, he told me he plans to study again during our vacation, to understand better. But our material aren't accessible. He's computer screen reader doesn't read math expression, he will not be able to visualize images and will not be able to solve exercises for training.
So, I talked a lot already, but I am here to know if any of you guys have any suggestion or experience with it. I know I am not the proper one to deal with it, but I want to help him in any possible way.
Thank you if you read until the end.
We finished the first semester today, and I helped one of them the best way I could. I searched for methods I could use, but it is hard to find something useful, mainly because we were studying online. He was able to understand and apply the general concepts, but deeply analysis were harder to him. I still want to help him, he told me he plans to study again during our vacation, to understand better. But our material aren't accessible. He's computer screen reader doesn't read math expression, he will not be able to visualize images and will not be able to solve exercises for training.
So, I talked a lot already, but I am here to know if any of you guys have any suggestion or experience with it. I know I am not the proper one to deal with it, but I want to help him in any possible way.
Thank you if you read until the end.
Kyra_Grey 4 points 1y ago
Hi there, unfortunately I cannot help with the technical part, but reading the last paragraph something came to my mind: I believe you are exactly the right and best person they can have at this point in time. There´s a simple Human Resources concept called CHA which stands for Conhecimento, Habilidade e Atitude (Knowledge, Skills and Attitude) and, BY FAR, the most important one to get things done is the ATTITUDE. In this regard specifically, you´re already doing a brilliant job reaching out to perfect the first and second competencies and be able to help them better. All in all, Kudos to you for that and I wish you the best of luck on your task. Cheers and don´t give up!
NiRK20 [OP] 1 points 1y ago
Thank you for the message, I really appreciated it!
Yeah, I'll keep trying to find some way to do it better. Soon our university will retake presencial activities, then I will be able to apply the few things I found around internet. It was my very first experience dealing with this kind of situation, next time I will be better prepared.
Yeah, I'll keep trying to find some way to do it better. Soon our university will retake presencial activities, then I will be able to apply the few things I found around internet. It was my very first experience dealing with this kind of situation, next time I will be better prepared.
BaylisAscaris 2 points 1y ago
Do you know what digital form the equations are in and if the teacher is writing them or copying from another source?
Some screenreaders support MathML. When LaTeX is converted into a PDF screenreaders generally don't understand it, but they can when converted into HTML5. $1
The other option is you can draw the equations big with puffy paint or describe them yourself. If the teacher is generating content and the equations are displayed as images they can create alt text with a written description.
Some screenreaders support MathML. When LaTeX is converted into a PDF screenreaders generally don't understand it, but they can when converted into HTML5. $1
The other option is you can draw the equations big with puffy paint or describe them yourself. If the teacher is generating content and the equations are displayed as images they can create alt text with a written description.
NiRK20 [OP] 1 points 1y ago
I am not sure, but it seems to be latex. The real problem is to find some way he would study by himself, I converted the pdf files to docx, but then the screen reader doesn't read equations and sometimes the text got all mixed up. I will take a look at this link you sent. Thank you for the answer.
BaylisAscaris 1 points 1y ago
See if you have access to the original files before they were converted to pdf. Once they are pdf the equations are turned into images and can't easily be turned back into words.
r_1235 1 points 1y ago
Amazing!
You taking initiative to do this job, on your own, I love it.
I will help you in whatever ways possible.
I didn't study physics, but I had Econometrics, which also had lot of graphs and math.
Graphs were drawn using Wikisticks. They are available online. And, also, someone sighted will have to sit with the blind guy and draw the graphs with those sticks to show them to the blind guy. There's no online substitute for that. There are audio-charts, but they are not enough for complex graphs.
Next, Math is a challenging part. I used Mathplayer with NVDA. It was not a satisfactory experience. Later I just switched to writing on notepad files using common symbols. Lot of symbols from Windows Charmap are accessible. Also, MS Word has a good symbols tool. For symbols which I couldn't find any workable accessible solution, I simply created substitute symbols using existing symbols on the keyboard. For example, to write Delta, I simply used Grave sign, the key before the number 1 key, for Lamda, I used \~, For Sigma I used $, and so on. It is a confusing solution, but once you put your mind to it, it can be worked out. NVDA over the time has come a long way in reading symbols. If a symbol is not being red, you can also add it to NVDA's symbol's dictionary to make it read.
For raising a number or variable to some power, I used \^ sign. For example, Y\^2, X\^4, and so on. You will have to change NVDA's symbol's reading mode using Insert+p while reading math.
Thank you for helping our friend, and I wish you best of luck.
You taking initiative to do this job, on your own, I love it.
I will help you in whatever ways possible.
I didn't study physics, but I had Econometrics, which also had lot of graphs and math.
Graphs were drawn using Wikisticks. They are available online. And, also, someone sighted will have to sit with the blind guy and draw the graphs with those sticks to show them to the blind guy. There's no online substitute for that. There are audio-charts, but they are not enough for complex graphs.
Next, Math is a challenging part. I used Mathplayer with NVDA. It was not a satisfactory experience. Later I just switched to writing on notepad files using common symbols. Lot of symbols from Windows Charmap are accessible. Also, MS Word has a good symbols tool. For symbols which I couldn't find any workable accessible solution, I simply created substitute symbols using existing symbols on the keyboard. For example, to write Delta, I simply used Grave sign, the key before the number 1 key, for Lamda, I used \~, For Sigma I used $, and so on. It is a confusing solution, but once you put your mind to it, it can be worked out. NVDA over the time has come a long way in reading symbols. If a symbol is not being red, you can also add it to NVDA's symbol's dictionary to make it read.
For raising a number or variable to some power, I used \^ sign. For example, Y\^2, X\^4, and so on. You will have to change NVDA's symbol's reading mode using Insert+p while reading math.
Thank you for helping our friend, and I wish you best of luck.
HeftyCryptographer21 1 points 1y ago
which part of physics? Graphs can be described or brailled, equations can be braille, large print, or spoken. Concepts can be described using everyday things. Centrifugal motion can be a ball on a string. Accelerating motion can be a car or a plane. Etc. If you have a more specific question feel free to ask me.
NiRK20 [OP] 1 points 1y ago
The main problem is how he could study by himself. The video classes weren't very accessible, his screen reader isn't able to read the texts our professor sent to us and neither can read exercises list. He could understand somethings from videos, and I converted the pdf texts to docx, but sometimes the convertion spoiled it. I don't if this kind of problem can be solved just by me, but I would like to minimize it at least.
Thank you for the answer
Thank you for the answer
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