Those of you who are teaching statistics to visually impaired (blind)
students may find
some helpful ideas from Bob Bottenberg's comments to Jay Thomas, included at
the end of this message.
Bob received his Ph.D. from Stanford after he was blinded in WWII. He
developed a strong statistics background from courses with Z.W. Birnbaum,
Al Bowker, Meyer Gershick and George Polya and an unusual memory for
everything he has HEARD.
I have had the pleasure to work with Bob for many years and he can be an
inspiration to anyone with whom he associates - blind or with full vision.
Now that he is retired from his work as a civilian researcher for the U.S.
Air Force, Bob is getting into the internet action.
Bob would be happy to share any of his procedures for hearing and reading
about stat concepts at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bob and I wrote a 140 page document on "Applied Multiple Linear Regression"
in 1963 in order to bring the combined power of Regression/Linear models and
Computers to the researchers with whom we worked. The reference is
Bottenberg, R.A. and Ward, J.H. "Applied Multiple Linear Regression",
PRL-TDR-63-6, AD-413- 128 -- originally available from the Clearinghouse for
Federal Scientific and Technical Information, Dept. of Commerce, Wash. D.C.
A few of the
"old-timers" who are lurking on the internet occasionally mention having a
copy. The approach was expanded in 1973 in the Prentice-Hall-published book
"Introduction to Linear Models" by Ward and Jennings.
------------------------------------------
JAY THOMAS WRITES:
From: "Thomas, Jay" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "'Earl Jennings'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2000 11:27 AM
Subject: RE: Visually impaired students
Dr. Jennings, et al,
>
> Thanks very much for getting my inquiry to Dr. Bottenberg, and of course
to
> Dr. Bottenberg for his detailed reply. Several people have given
> suggestions, none as extensive as these were. I hope to compile the
> suggestions after the chaos of the first week or two of school and send
them
> out.
>
> Incidentally, I was reading a history of statistics over the summer (I
lead
> an exciting life) and learned that one of the early important figures in
the
> field was Nicholas Saunderson, who held the Lucasian Chair at Oxford after
> Newton and was blind from the age of 12 months. Oddly, one of his major
> mathematical contributions was in the field of optics.
> Again, thanks for your advice.
>
> Jay Thomas
---------------------------------------
JAY THOMAS' MESSAGE RECEIVED BY PAUL KELLEY
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Delivered-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2000 14:15:37 -0700
Reply-To: "Thomas, Jay" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sender: APA Division 5 Members <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: "Thomas, Jay" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [APA] visually impaired statistics students
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
I have a couple of visually impaired students in my upcoming basic
statistics course this fall. I normally stress visualization and drawing
sketches to understand statistics, but expect that tactic won't work with
these students. Has anyone found effective ways of presenting statistical
concepts to blind students?
Jay Thomas
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BOB BOTTENBERG REPLIES TO JAY THOMAS
Hi Jay,
Joe Ward passed on to me a note you sent about techniques for teaching
statistics to
visually impaired students. I've been totally blind since 1945, and took
some
undergraduate statistics courses in the psychology department at the U. of
Missouri in
the late 40s. Then at Stanford in 1952-1953, I enrolled in five or six
courses in
probability and mathematical statistics. This background is offered by way
of apology
for not having many suggestions for teaching in a contemporary environment.
Graphs,
charts and figures have always been troublesome, and, as I recall (45 years
back), I
absorbed that material in a quite tedious way. A reader, outside of a
classroom
setting, would describe a graph by saying the names of the axis, horizontal,
vertical.
Then indicating in a very general way the path of the line from left to
right, have
first provided a word or two about the units on each axis -- lower and
upper. Then, the
really slow part -- pick a point on the line and read the approximate
coordinates. Do
that for a few points, and the mental picture of the graph would begin to
emerge. Of
course, the pace of classroom activity makes it impractical to do anything
like that
there. Charts were handled in a similar manner -- the reader reads the
column headers,
then the row headers, then reads a row at a time, or a column at a time. Of
course, the
real area of interest in a chart is the comparison of values in a given
column and
adjacent, or even widely separated rows. I never found a substitute for
working with a
patient reader to getting mental arms around a chart. Since that distant
point in time,
low vision and blind users have access to desk and lap-top computers with
synthesized
voice screen-readers. I am composing this message using Eudora for e-mail,
JAWS for
WINDOWS (98), and connected to a page (text) scanner with Arkenstone RUBY
Open Book.
Charts and tables can be handled readily, with JAWS able to identify for the
user the
row, column location and to go easily from one cell to any other desired.
One or both of
the students may come fully equipped with a lap-top or desk-top with JAWS
and WINDOWS
and RUBY - if not and they are interested, I'll be happy to send some
addresses and
contacts. Some scanners do accept graphics, but I have never seen one
operate, and
don't know if a blind/low-vision user could get any benefit. About the
extent of my
personal interest in a graphics description is to find out what the animated
figures on
a Blue Mountain greeting card are doing while the music plays in the
background.
There is, of course, an abundance of new technology for assisting visually
impaired
folks which has come along since the 1950s. Since I am a total, I have
never given a
lot of attention to image enhancement via special optics, and c.c.t.v.
(closed circuit
television) Many of my low-vision friends use these things to read mail,
watch TV, etc.
There might be something along these lines that could be set up in a
classroom if your
students have some residual vision. As you have probably found out by now,
the do-
gooders 30 or 40 years ago thought the term "blind" might be demeaning, and
the term
"visually impaired" was invented to cover everyone from 20/20 to totals
without having
to use the word blind. What that does is fail to distinguish between folks
with some
vision loss who might benefit from image enhancing technology, and totals
who must have
either tactile or audible input. If your student have some useful vision,
some image
enhancing techniques might be feasible. If vision is very low, or
non-existent, I can't
offer much of any suggestions. I had one class in matrix algebra under Dr.
Ruben at
Stanford -- he was careful to emit something for every character he put on
the board.
There wasn't graphics, but his attention to saying what he was writing was
wonderful.
Then there was Dr. Herzog who taught finite statistics and would fill one
entire board
and then point to say "since this here, then that down here". I got a
fellow student to
record his notes in full, then I would convert them to Braille. The more
you say about
what is going up on the board (without making it obvious that it is just to
take care of
the two impaired students), the better their chances to grasp the concepts.
I will pass on your note up organizational channels to see if there is more
enlightenment than I can shed.
Good luck,
Bob Bottenberg
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