scientific and graphing calculators
Are there scientific and graphing calculators that are accessible to blind students?
Calculators are extensively used in every educational level. Calculators can be used to carry out statistics , scientific calculations, alter matrices and plot functions on graphs are particularly useful for studying advanced mathematics. While the majority scientific and graphing calculators aren't accessible to people with visual ability, there are options available to those who are visually impaired to use these calculators in a way that is effective.
There are many talking scientific calculators are available on the market, however the calculators do not all function to the exact specifications required on all scales. Therefore, an assessment of features required by the student needs to be done so that the most appropriate calculator for the student is chosen. Susan Osterhaus at the Texas School for the Blind has written a comprehensive review of features of different speaking Scientific calculators which could aid in the selection process. This calculator Orion TI-30XS MultiView Communicating Scientific Calculator has the potential to be highly respected and highly-respected scientific calculator that may meet the needs of various types of students.
Another option is the electronic notetaker portable that comes with the latest math features. Certain notetakers are equipped with speech synthesis that works with Braille that refreshes . These can be utilized by students who are visually impaired for trigonometric and logarithmic calculations. Make sure to check with the manufacturer of the notetaker to determine whether there is an scientific calculator function can be used.
There are other programs that allows the ability to speak to an scientific calculator application. Some of them emulate the standard calculator interface and some can also provide users with access via sound to graphs. For instance the Audio Graphing Calculator (AGC) is an example of a user-friendly Windows-based application and features graphing calculators that have the capability of displaying graphs both audio and visually as a sonified tone graph.
For more information on accessibility to and use of scientific and graphing calculators see the accessibility resource, accessible Calculators on the GeorgiaTech Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access (CATEA).
To learn more about accessible math, take a look at the following Knowledge Base articles What are some ways to make Braille maths material? and why is accessibility to math important?
Comments
Post a Comment