Networking Forum

Here are my quick thoughts about your husband's situation.

First, Dr. Abraham Nemeth emphasizes that a blind person who is adequately trained in his/her field and who has mastered the skills of blindness can function as competently as anyone else in his/her field. Blindness, he says, need not be an obstacle.

Dr. Nemeth developed the Nemeth Braille Code for Mathematics and Science Notation in 1952. The Nemeth Code has gone through four revisions since its initial development and continues in wide use today.

Nemeth Code is braille designed specifically for mathematics and science. For chemistry text, the science's own specialized braille notation is used. Graphs and diagrams are either described or can be produced as tactile figures on thermoform. Dr. Nemeth is also responsible for the rules of MathSpeak, a system for orally communicating mathematical text.

For more details about Dr. Nemeth and his work, go to http://www.blindscience.org/ncbys/Abraham_Nemeth.asp

Second, consider the work of John J. Boyer. Both blind and deaf, John and his non-profit company, Computers to Help People, Inc., (CHPI) seek to support careers in the sciences and technology for print-impaired people.

CHPI provides well-rounded services that support access to computers and promotes transcription of scientific and technical materials into braille and other accessible formats. It will braille math, science and ordinary text and music.

Since CHPI's Technical Braille Center uses special braille transcription software, MegaDots, to produce accessible text for science and computer materials, it's able to turnaround these projects relatively quickly compared to those who manually transcribe them.

For more about John and his work, check http://www.esight.org/view.cfm?x=638

Here's a third development that is happening right now. The Universal Math Access Lab at the University of San Francisco is currently developing two different systems to aid blind students in learning mathematics.

One system, the MathGenie, is being developed to aid advanced math students in the process of reading and understanding higher-level math. For more information, see http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/news/event?ID=1592

My fourth thought: Remember that blind students need math tutors - maybe the perfect niche for your husband.

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Although I have never experienced blindness or loss of sight, I know there is assistive technology that makes computer use possible. Dragon Naturally Speaking allows the voice to dictate emails, documents, etc. while Jaws is a screen reader which reads the material presented on the monitor. As a math teacher George has valuable skills that can be transferred and shared. It may be different than what he is used to but it is possible. It is also an opportunity to re-invent himself if he so desires.

May the road ahead be smooth.

I work for the recruiting team at a fortune 500 company that specifically reaches out to the community to hire people with disabilities. I have personally worked with a few applicants that were hired into customer service positions who are blind. In most cases they use JAWs software and Zoomtext software. I have been amazed at the assistive technology for the visually impaired that helps them to be just as effective in their job. Of course, each person is different as some have been blind since birth, may use braille, and may have experience working with these technologies for a longer period of time. However, it is my understanding that there are programs offered through Vocational Rehabilitation offices, Easter Seals, and Schools for the Blind (among others)that specifically have training programs that work with people who are losing their sight and preparing them to use the computer and assistive technology so that they can continue working in the same positions, etc. once they totally lose their sight.

This, coupled with the fact that there are companies (like the one I work for) who reach out to employ people with disabilities because they know that they are gaining quality employees with superb skills and work ethic, should give you some confidence in obtaining the work that you desire.

Good Luck!

Thanks Jim, Barney and Kathy for mentioning all the adaptive devices and techniques I was going to mention.

I have been partially sighted all my life, but lost a major part of what vision I had twenty years ago due to a medication and then in the last ten years have developed glaucoma to boot.

I don't know where George is , if he is in Canada the Canadian National Insitute for the blind www.cnib.org has vocational centers in all of the major cities in Canada. With an opthamologist or optemistrist's recommendation the CNIB will test your abilities and help with any adaptive devices you need. I know because I'm being tutored in Jaws and the Kurzweil reader which also may be of use to a math tutor as the Kurzweil will scan books including textbooks or any other printed material and then read them back to you in a pretty human sounding like voice. You also can add notes on the Kurzweil.

I also would like George or George's wife to read last week's eNN on the tips for people over 50 and especially listen to the May 8th edition of Bill Moyers, with the Harvard professor. Oftentimes we become fearful about what we are losing which is absolutely normal, and we fear there will be no more opprotunities for us to pursue a career or job . There can be if you adjust how you think about it and how you were taught to think about your blindness.

With the new adaptive technology avialable blind and partially sighted people have many new opportunities that we didn't have 15,20, 30 years ago and as Jim said more are being invented every day. Blind students will still need blind math tutors and blind math teachers to help them achieve their dreams while they help you achieve your's.

Check out the help offered here, talk to state voc rehab or the nfb or cnib or even special services at your local college and or university.

Liz S.

I lost my sight at the age of 52. Although I had a positive attitude and was determined to return to my position as an executive with an engineering firm, I had no idea how I could achieve this goal. Six months later, I was back to work!! The process during those six months was difficult but I realize now that I had the goal of returning to work!

George must start to believe he hasn’t lost his skills, years of knowledge or his ability to motivate and teach people. He just lost his sight. Everything will change but oddly enough, nothing really changes. He will need to learn new methods of teaching what he knows but the most important part is George knows what has to be taught!

No one can change George’s attitude that is up to him. I found I was able to return to work with very little computer skills as I relized my skill and worth to my employer was my knowledge and my ability to communicate. This is the same for teaching but, once he learns to use the technology for the blind, he will gain more confidence.

The most important step for George is to believe he is the same person, with the same skills but now needs to learn new methods to compensate for the reality he cannot use his sight. His sight did not make him a teacher!! His sight certainly was a very useful tool but George was the teacher and he is still a teacher!!

Thanks Jeremiah, very wise insights.

Dear George and George’s Wife,

Don’t be discouraged! We know hundreds of blind individuals who are fluent in computer use, and perform as well and often better than their sighted counterparts. We are The National Statler Center, and we train blind, visually impaired and disabled people for fulfilling careers, and computer skills are a critical part of our curriculum. Thanks to our outstanding certified instructors and innovations in assistive technology devices, our students learn all the most popular Microsoft software programs, as well as proprietary software used in many industries. Contact www.statlercenter.org for information.

Not being as fast as a sighted person is a load of %^**%%^. Being sighted can be a reason not to learn how your computer works. Sight can be used as a crutch when working with computers.

Not being able to see forces us to innovate and find better and faster ways of working with computers. There are screen reader technologies like Jaws and Zoomtext for Windows and Orca for Linux.

If your husband is really interested in improving his computer skills, then go to a community colledge and take some introductory courses. He needs to first find out if this is something he likes to do before doing a full career change.

And for the tutoring, I do not understand why he has to stop tutoring because he is losing his sight. Find a way to use this to his advantage to help his students become more self reliant. have them do more of the work while he sits back and teaches.

George has already gotten excellent input on the technology and where to find it; there's really nothing to add there. However, I do want to address the emotional componant of this situation - that a blind person can't do things as well as a sighted person. Specifically, that he won't be able to read as fast.

A little less than ten years ago, I became vision-impaired. Without going into too much detail, it became very difficult for me to read, even with magnification. But I found a way around it - I changed the primary way I take in information. Nearly everything that's available in text is also available in audio and most of what isn't is available in a form that a screen reader can read for you. Speeds are adjustable and, over the years, I've increased the rate so I now listen nearly as fast as I used to read.

I can't speak directly to the teaching aspect; as has been mentioned, a lot of that depends on George's attitude. I can tell you it's possible to move forward doing essentially what he was doing before; all that's added is accomodation and adaptation. Employers are usually quite willing to work with the local blind resource groups to get the necessary software and hardware. I kept the same job I had, just like Jeremiah did. George can do the same.

Thanks Jeffery, Abraham and Jeff for your expertise and insights for George and George's wife. We all have offered our expertise and advice and all that is really left for George is firstly his choices in what he decides to do, how his choice is affected by his attitude towards his situation and his choices and what opportunities he decides to choose from his choice. It's up to George now and hopefully we'll hear what he has chosen soon.

thanks again for everyone's imput. Liz

I did encounter a couple of products to help blind and low vision students with math lately.

Two items stand out that could possibly help the gentleman. The first is the gh Mathspeak. This software is designed to read digital talking books and can read mathematical formulas from files including NIMAS, Daisy and ANSI. I have a demo and plan to check it out further for a couple of my students, but it looks like it will be great. Like the Victor reader and Read-Outloud, it presents in text as well as audibly and allows you to bookmark. It reads formulas in such a way that you can understand what they are describing.

Check it out at www.gh-mathspeak.com

Also, for those who prefer lower tech, there was a company that had a magnetic tile system on a tactile grid. the tiles were raised, high contrast and also had braille code on them. The manufacturer was Wolf Products Inc. the system was called "Mathwindow". See this at www.mathwindow.com

It had tiles available for Geometry and Algebra level.

I hope this has been of some help.

Hello, My name is Betty Banks, and in answer to the first question about teaching math as a blind person.

Yes! you can, it is being done.

I am legally (blind), and I am being taught math, and we use a tape recorder and our voices and I am learning a lot.

You can teach computers, if you have a voice.

I myself is looking for a group for support for deafBlind persons.

I too have lost my functional site. I have found that like it or not you have to "Just do it". I was not very computer savy when I left work, but now with years of use I feel confident. I have returned to the workforce and an now computer dependent. My Advice is 1. If you are going to do something, DO IT. 2. Start by learning to do things Blind. then use your residual sight to supplement those skills. Dave