From: Mike.Freeman@f126.n105.z1.fidonet.org (Mike Freeman)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Teaching Math to the
Date: 12 Aug 92 21:18:26 GMT
Reply-To: Mike.Freeman@f126.n105.z1.fidonet.org
Organization: FidoNet node 1:105/126 - Lawson & Reay, Vancouver WA
X-Fidonet: Blink Talk Conference

Index Number: 23844

[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

To: martin@trout.nosc.mil (Douglas Martin)

In a message to All <17 Jul 92 18:44> Douglas Martin wrote:

 DM> Having read several replies to the
 DM> questions about learning math as
 DM> a blind person, I have some additional
 DM> ideas and experiences which
 DM> might be valuable.  I am a totally blind acoustics research
 DM> scientist; my undergrad major was
 DM> physics; and, of course, I had to
 DM> study lots of math including calculus,
 DM> statistics, and linear
 DM> algebra.

Not to mention differential equations and multivariate calculus <grin>.
Ah, it sounds oh so familiar.  My undergraduate degree was a B.A. in
physics and I have an M.S. in physics also, although I'm now a computer
programmer (they were more needed at the time I got out than were
physicists <grin>).  Before going further, I shall say that this (your)
post is the most sensible of those I've seen on this subject in this
echo.  BTW, I have RLF (now ROP) and only see light.  It's cool to meet
someone else who dared to take math and the sciences.

 DM> If Braille can be used, the task of learning math is, in my
 DM> opinion, much easier.  I paid a little
 DM> extra and worked hard to get
 DM> all my calculus books transcribed into
 DM> Braille Nemeth code, even
 DM> though most of the books were
 DM> available on tape.  (Have you ever
 DM> listened to a tape recording of a trig
 DM> table?!)  Braille affords

Listening to a topology text on tape is by far worse! <grin>

 DM> the ability to lay oud data in tabular
 DM> form, to write equations on
 DM> several lines, and to review specific
 DM> groups of symbols.  From
 DM> tape, checking the precedence of
 DM> parentheses and brackets is nearly
 DM> impossible.

I wouldn't go quite *that* far.  However, as you indicate below, audio
materials, to be intelligible and useful, must be read *very* carefully
by someone who knows what he/she's doing.  It's by far easier to
understand math materials when they've been transcribed into Braille.  I
also paid to have books transcribed; I still have them all, including
Hans Bethe's famous paper outlining the quantum mechanics of the
hydrogen atom.

[Rest of fine post deleted]

I had little trouble with graphs, although, as you say, isometric
drawings just don't cut it for the fingers!  I used a AFB raised-line
drawing kit also; my father used to draw some diagrams/graphs using a
tracing wheel on Braille paper (one must do this upside down so that the
graph comes out right on the other side of the paper) and, in the case
of some multidimensional functions, the math proff I had at the time had
the functions constructed in wood so that one could easily see the
various maxima and minima, saddle-points, etc.

I agree completely with all your other comments; I believe good Braille
skills to be almost (not quite but almost) a prerequisite to really do
well in advanced math.  But it's certainly doable and it really
irritates me when those who advise the blind discourage them from trying
math and the sciences.

Fellow BlinkTalkers, be sure to save Mr. Martin's post; it's the sanest
thing I've seen here yet on this subject (as I said).

Mike Freeman < K 7 U I J >

P.S.  I believe the evidence that RLF causes spatial problems is slim to
nonexistent. -MF-
... ** "A cynic is right nine times out of ten." -- H. L. Mencken **
___ CRR QWK 1.40

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