Hi
Just a few thoughts.

£10,000 (and rising) to convert a maths text book into Braille is not 
acceptable. While it's difficult to convert maths into Braille, it's not 
that difficult that it should cost so much! You'd be better off spending 
£10,000 on employing someone to work directly with the student on helping 
her transcribe this and other materials into maths / computer Braille. The 
person could be a maths graduate who's willing to learn how to use 
specialist software and hardware to convert maths materials into accessible 
formats e.g. using handheld tactile diagram methods.

Does the Braille Note-taker device you've bought have a 'soft Braille' 
display? If so, you might find its possible for the student to make sense of 
plain text (ASCII) file versions of some of the maths and computing 
documents she needs to access e.g. using Grade 0 or 'computer' Braille. 
These could be loaded into the device memory, or Jaws might be capable of 
recognising the device as an external braille display. The student can learn 
how to switch between turning on and off transcription of Braille into grade 
2 and grade 0 when reading these electronic documents.

Might it be possible to get an electronic text version of the maths text 
book directly from the publishers, so the student can try accessing the book 
via Jaws and the note-taking device with braille display?

Does your university have an in-house specialist transcription service for 
blind students? If not (and why not) then you'll probably need the help of 
other institutions who've already made this commitment and have had to 
support students with similar complex requirements. They might have even 
transcribed some of the materials your student needs to use.

Have you asked your regional RNIB Education/Employment Advisor for help? If 
not, I'd suggest you contact them immediately.

You might also want to browse the Blindmath mailing list archive at 
http://www.nfbnet.org/pipermail/blindmath/ to get an idea of some of the 
strategies people are using to access maths information, and maybe encourage 
the student to join the list.

Hope this helps
Ian Francis





----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Debbie Louise Gloster" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2007 3:39 PM
Subject: Blind student studying Computer Science with Cybernetics




Hi everyone,



Does anyone have experience of supporting a Blind/Braille user student 
through a Computer Science and Cybernetics course?  Or on a maths program?



We have a student in her 1st year.   She needs a maths text book translated 
into Braille as she is unable to do her maths in any other format.  On top 
of her DSA (which she has exceeded with Jaws software, opticbook 
scanner+kuzweill, Plextalk daisy recorder etc) we have purchased a Braille 
notetaker and a scannar for the library which has already totalled approx 
£6,000.



I have been in discussions with a Braille transcription company about 
getting the Maths course text book transcribed on a rolling week by week 
basis for her lectures (as there is clear list about what specific reading 
sections are required for each maths session) They have quoted that the cost 
of creating this is likely to be in excess of £10,000 for this book alone.



On top of this there is a need for many lecture notes with complex equations 
and diagrams to be created into a tactile form on a regular basis.  The 
Braille translation company have advised me that the material is too complex 
for their software so it would need to be hand keyed and proofread.  This 
would suggest that therefore that having Braille translation software such 
as Duxbury wouldn't be sufficient for the student to create her own 
Braille - and it obviously wouldn't solve the ongoing diagram accessibility 
issue.



I would really appreciate anyone's advice on this.  What would your 
institution's idea of 'reasonable' adjustments be in a situation like this?



Kind regards



Debbie



Debbie Gloster, Disability Adviser

Disability Advisory Service, Student Services, Whiteknights, University of 
Reading, RG6 6AH| * 0118 378 8921| * (fax) 0118 378 7393






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