Dear Chris,
The problem you are facing of teaching mathematics to blind people is
not a new one, and fortunately some terrific advances have been made
recently in the field. First of all, let me reccommend that you e-mail
Dr. Nemeth, as others have suggested, and ask his opinion.
Second, I have written a paper, Teaching Science to the Visually
Impaired, which deals with the topics of math and science education for
the blind. This, together with other infomation on our homepage, the
VISIONS Lab homepage, may prove useful to you. The address is
http://www.chem.purdue.edu/facilities/sightlab/index.html
Third, we have developed custom software specifically for teaching math
to the blind. Specifically, we have written a program that converts
print equations into braille, which is available on our Web page.
Version 2.0 of our program, which we have recently finished, includes
support for Nemeth Braille output as well as MathSpeak output, which is
the spoken form of mathematics also invented by Dr. Nemeth. This should
be of great use to you in teaching your student.
Finally, let me mention that Drs. Mike Kress and Al Blank have
developed an AudioTactile beginning Calculus course, which uses sound
and tactile graphics to teach calculus. This, along with some of our
work in tactile images, may be another route for learning for your
student.
Feel free to e-mail or call me if you have any questions.
Regards,
Dave Schleppenbach
VISIONS LAb director
engage@purdue.edu
http://www.chem.purdue.edu/facilities/sightlab/index.html
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