---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jonathan Godfrey <[email protected]> Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2012 11:59:34 +1300 Subject: [Blindmath] R accessibility To: [email protected], Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics <[email protected]>
Responding to Vince's message. The GUI console in the latest version of R (2.15.2, released 26 Oct 2012) is as accessible as the GUI versions going back at least three years. While I'm pleased you think this version is usable and have made this call on actually using the software, I'd like to know what it is that you think has changed for you. I've tested almost every major and minor release of R since mid 2008 using both Jaws and NVDA on a mixture of operating systems. I have not yet found anything in the terminal or console windows that have altered enough to get excited. I have noticed the improvements in access we have to the help systems as the information has moved to being presented in html as the default (version 2.11.0 onwards for general pages and 2.14.0 for the search pages). My most noticeable access issues remain the inability to review material that has slipped off the top of the screen as more work gets done (not just a problem in R but in many similar applications) and the necessity to use the screen reader's review mode to read back event he simplest output in the GUI version of R. If you type Mean(1:5) At the R prompt you do not hear the answer spoken aloud by the GUI version, but if you use the terminal window you do get the answer read aloud. I use the terminal window as my scientific calculator as a consequence. Cheers, Jonathan -----Original Message----- From: Blindmath [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of vincent martin Sent: Monday, 12 November 2012 9:46 a.m. To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Blindmath Digest, Vol 76, Issue 5 FYI The latest release of "R" now has its GUI speaking with screen reading programs in Windows! I found out by accident and have been actively using it! It sure makes some things much, much easier. -----Original Message----- From: Blindmath [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Sunday, November 11, 2012 1:01 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Blindmath Digest, Vol 76, Issue 5 Send Blindmath mailing list submissions to [email protected] To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindmath_nfbnet.org or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to [email protected] You can reach the person managing the list at [email protected] When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Blindmath digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: [Social-sciences-list] [BlindAcademics] Math Teaching Techniques (Arielle Silverman) 2. Re: new publication about R accessibility (Michael Whapples) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2012 13:19:13 -0700 From: Arielle Silverman <[email protected]> To: Blind Social Scientists List <[email protected]> Cc: Blind Academics Discussion List <[email protected]>, blindmath <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] [Social-sciences-list] [BlindAcademics] Math Teaching Techniques Message-ID: <calayqjdrmep5nupdwvvjaeknorgl_gz1cddnpbaena1qzeo...@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Thanks everyone for the helpful teaching suggestions. Right now my questions are still pretty abstract since I don't even know if I want a position that includes teaching. However, it's good to know that several blind people have successfully handled these issues in case questions come up in a job interview. If I do get a teaching position, then I will probably have more specific questions. I would plan to use PowerPoint a lot. One issue is that I have been totally blind since birth, and can barely sign my own name, hence I would not trust myself to draw anything and expect it to be of educational value to others. I like the idea of making the classes interactive, but I am curious how easy this is to do in a lecture of 350 students? Best, Arielle On 11/9/12, Cary Supalo <[email protected]> wrote: > Arielle, > I use Power Point slides for lots of my lectures. Further, book > publishers make available to teachers pre-drawn slides. I work with a > reader to select the ones I want to use from the database the > publisher provides. I can then supplement these slides with other ones > I have made. > I then use hard copy Braille for the text on the slides. I run the > presentation using a text-to-speech screen reader. I want to try using > the ViewPlus Iveo with tactile drawings of phase diagrams and other 2d > visuals. I will have to add text descriptions to the graphics which > are already Braille labeled of additional details to be mentioned. I > have not done this yet, but this is something I intend to try before > to long. > Hope this helps. > Cary > At 08:42 PM 11/8/2012, Arielle Silverman wrote: >>Hi all, >>I was just curious whether any of you have experience teaching >>quantitative subjects at the college level (i.e. math, chemistry, >>statistics etc.) and if so, could you share a little bit about any >>alternative methods you use for teaching sighted students? As a >>soon-to-be psychology Ph.D. I am qualified to teach statistics >>courses, but I've observed that at least at the introductory level, a >>lot of the content is traditionally presented in a very visual way, >>i.e. with histograms, emphasis on the graphical properties of >>probability distributions, etc. I didn't learn that way myself and so >>I'm a little lost as to how I would present this kind of material in a >>way that is accessible to sighted students. How have you handled these >>kinds of issues? >>Best, >>Arielle >>_______________________________________________ >>BlindAcademics mailing list >>[email protected] >>https://mailman.rice.edu/mailman/listinfo/blindacademics > > > _______________________________________________ > Social-sciences-list mailing list > [email protected] > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/social-sciences-list_nfbnet.org > To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for > Social-sciences-list: > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/social-sciences-list_nfbnet.org/arie > lle71%40gmail.com > ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2012 09:57:52 +0000 From: Michael Whapples <[email protected]> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] new publication about R accessibility Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Hello, Sorry for not getting to this earlier, but good work. I think you capture many of the issues one can have well and explain things well. A few small notes: * On Linux for console applications I probably would choose to use the speakup screen reader http://www.linux-speakup.org/. Orca is really designed as a GUI desktop screen reader where as speakup is just a text console screenreader and so is optimised for that use. Also cross-platform accessibility is a very difficult problem, even toolkits like WX can have problems, normally on non-windows platforms, probably due to the lower number of users. WX and SWT use native widgets of the platform, but to make all features common across platforms sometimes they need to use custom controls in which case it depends on whether they have done the accessibility stuff for the control. Sun Micro went a different route, having a common accessibility API for all platforms and needing the user to have access bridges, but we know how that is. While I agree cross-platform accessibility is a nice goal to aim for, probably realistically for a project where accessibility is not one of the main concerns (only a small number of users) then to have it working well on one platform may be more achievable. Michael Whapples On 27/10/2012 00:01, Jonathan Godfrey wrote: > Greetings all, > > For some time now, I've been working on making the R community more > aware of what R has to offer the blind community. (And vice versa > also!) > > Courtesy of links made via this email list and conferences/workshops > attended, I have been able to submit an article to the R Journal. This > is the main journal where those people involved with the development > of R present their work and findings. After some refereeing processes > and some editing, I have just learned that the article will be > published in December this year. > > The submission now appears online on the journal's web > site: http://journal.r-project.org/accepted/2012-14/Godfrey.pdf > > This is a pre-print so the volume/issue/page numbers will change but I > felt that this community deserved to see the fruits of my labour and > the snippets of wisdom collated over the last five or so years. As an > academic myself, I think it is important to recognize those whose > shoulders you have stood on. Several list participants get an explicit > mention (John Gardner and Neil Soiffer) but others will know that they > have pointed me and other list members in the right direction to > excellent resources. > > Let me now extend my sincere thanks to those people: John, Neil, > Michael, Susan, Dominique, and those people too numerous to name > explicitly whose feedback has been invaluable. Thank you all. > > Jonathan > > _____ > Dr A. Jonathan R. Godfrey > Lecturer in Statistics > Institute of Fundamental Sciences > Massey University > Palmerston North > > Office: Science Tower B Room 3.15 > Phone: +64-6-356 9099 ext 7705 > Mobile: +64-29-538-9814 > Home Address: 52 Linton St, Palm. Nth. > Home Phone: +64-6-353 2224 (Just think FLEABAG) > _______________________________________________ > Blindmath mailing list > [email protected] > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindmath_nfbnet.org > To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for > Blindmath: > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindmath_nfbnet.org/mwhapples%40aim > .com > ------------------------------ Subject: Digest Footer _______________________________________________ Blindmath mailing list [email protected] http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindmath_nfbnet.org ------------------------------ End of Blindmath Digest, Vol 76, Issue 5 **************************************** _______________________________________________ Blindmath mailing list [email protected] http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindmath_nfbnet.org To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Blindmath: http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindmath_nfbnet.org/a.j.godfrey%40massey. ac.nz _______________________________________________ Blindmath mailing list [email protected] http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindmath_nfbnet.org To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Blindmath: http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindmath_nfbnet.org/shweta.mishra668%40gmail.com Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. 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