Helping visually impaired students in the study of mathematics

Abstract

One of the greatest challenges to the visually impaired student in science and mathematics disciplines is the reading and writing of complex mathematical equations. Indeed the study of almost all science or engineering based disciplines is normally beyond the ability of the majority of students with serious visual impairment. In research underway at New Mexico State University, tools are being built using logic programming to facilitate access to complex information in a variety of formats. On top of the logic based tools, new interfaces are being designed to permit more convenient access to information by our visually impaired student. The combined tools will complete the teaching cycle: exams and assignments prepared by sighted instructors, the material presented to visually impaired students using interactive tools, and finally, the students manipulating and creating responses that are readable by the sighted instructor. In this paper we present an overview of the systems under development with samples of the interface tools being tested.