Resources for Visually Impaired Maths Students

In the section Catagorised Links some of the items have been grouped to make it easier to find what you are looking for. In the section Entries all items can be found in no particular order.

At the current moment, if you would like to contribute please email jxb1321@alumni.bham.ac.uk. Please give as much detail in your email as possible. No personal information about you will be published.

By the nature of this page, some of the information is bound to be outdated. This is because this page documents what students have used in the past. The reader should be warned that information might not be current. We are making plans to combat this issue in the future. However, the page is still useful to see how other students have/are working.

As a new year 1 maths student, the following advice may be particularly useful:

• Latex and in particular the Latex-Access Project
• HTML Files
• Blind Math Mailing List
• Desmos Audio Plotting
• Setting Up NVDA for Mathematics
• Microsoft Word for Producing Mathematical Documents

This section contains advice about finding accessable resources.

• Arxiv
• Blind Math Mailing List
• Open Textbooks | American Institute of Mathematics

• German Film
• Pin Boards
• Desmos Audio Plotting

Arxiv is an online repository of Mathematics and Physics research resources. For example, papers and lecture notes. Arxiv stores the vast majority of it's resources as .tex latex files as well as PDF and sometimes HTML. You can visit the arxiv at https://arxiv.org. To download the .tex versions go to the other formats link and then the download source link. The files download without a file extension but they can be opened in a standard text editor like emacs or notepad etc.

Emacspeak is a screen reader extension of the text editor Emacs. Whilst Emacs and Emacspeak can be technical to setup they can be a very useful tool to access mathematics through Latex and computer programming. Emacspeak is particularly useful on the mac as there is a lack of accessible text editors. Furthermore, emacs has many extensions like a calculator and calendar which are made accessible with Emacspeak. You can find out more about emacspeak at https://emacspeak.sourceforge.net/. You can find out more about emacs at https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/.

BlindMath is a mailing list/website where people can discuss all aspects of blindness and mathematics. View the archives for lots of discussions on a number of topics. Register on the mailing list to ask questions. You can view the webpage at http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindmath_nfbnet.org.

Desmos is an online graphing calculator. By pressing Alt-T Desmos allows you to audio plot a graph you have previously entered. Type in an expression, press Alt-T and then use the arrow keys to hear the graph. It can also tell you useful information about extrema, intersections of curves etc. You can visit Desmos at https://www.desmos.com/calculator.

Pin boards are a technique to produce tactile diagrams. They can easily be DIY in a pinch. The idea is, you use thumb-tacks and elastic bands to produce diagrams. For example, with a cork-board one can place 4 thumb-tacks and use elastic bands to make a square shape. This can be used to produce shapes, plots, and graphs easily. You can buy cork boards which are small and portable for this purpose.

German film provides a way to make tactile diagrams quickly. On a rubber mat, a piece of german film is placed. German film is a little bit like clingfilm but thicker. The film can then be drawn on with a stylus. The result is a tactile diagram. German film can be bought in a number of places. Try the RNIB shop. Your university might buy it for you.

HTML files can be produced from Latex source files. If you struggle to read the raw latex file, HTML files can be used and screen readers often read out the Mathematics in a more friendly way. This website is an example of an HTML file. Some sample maths is given below: \[ 4\int_0^1{ \sqrt{ 1-x^2} \, dx} = \pi. \] Don't worry if that didn't read properly with your screen reader. On Mac with Voiceover it should have automatically read out properly. If you are using NVDA you might need to install a program called Mathplayer4 to get it to work properly. Please consult the instructions for your screen reader. If you use NVDA see Setting Up NVDA for Mathematics.

You can read the section of the NVDA instructions for setting up NVDA to read maths at https://www.nvaccess.org/files/nvda/documentation/userGuide.html#ReadingMath. NVDA also allows you to navigate through the mathematics you are reading and examine it in small chunks. This might be a good way to access lecture notes through HTML Files.

MS Word is a program for writing documents. It has a feature which allows one to enter equations in a number of formats, including Latex. Writing an entire Latex document can be quite complicated. MS word can therefore make it easier to write out problem sheets and other mathematical documents. You can also save your documents as a PDF.

The Open Textbooks page by the AIM can provide some books in accessible formats. Some of the books on this list have HTML versions and some of them have .tex versions. They are all free to access. They are not all accessible. You can find the list of books at https://aimath.org/textbooks/approved-textbooks/.