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Accommodations for visually impaired

  • 1.  Accommodations for visually impaired

    Posted 02-09-2018 14:38
    I am teaching a couple of online classes, Introduction to R and Introduction to SAS, and have been asked to make accommodations for visually impaired students. I'm glad to do this, but it got me to thinking. How does a blind statistician do his/her work? In particular, how do you work with graphs and with packages like SAS and R? I can make some guesses, but I'd like to hear from statisticians who are visually impaired or who know someone who is visually impaired.

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    Stephen Simon, blog.pmean.com
    Independent Statistical Consultant
    P. Mean Consulting
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  • 2.  RE: Accommodations for visually impaired

    Posted 02-12-2018 02:29
    Hi,
    I've used window eyes software to put voice to both what is on the screen and what I'm typing on my blind days. It's one your students could use with SAS and R, and there are other free speech synthesizer programs if you search on line.  Minitab is a good one for students and also can be accessed with screen readers programs like window eyes.
    Pat Fox
    Fox Statistical Consulting & Applied Research
     



    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Accommodations for visually impaired

    Posted 02-12-2018 08:04
    This is outside of my experience, as I am not visually impaired and haven't worked closely with anyone who is. But I did have an opportunity to visit the SAS campus a few months ago and see a demonstration of some software SAS is developing that turns computer graphics into sound. 






    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Accommodations for visually impaired

    Posted 02-12-2018 08:47
    Part of my job is creating web surveys.  To accomodate the visually impaired, audio links are included with the interview questions.  

    Screen readers are also an option, although I have never used them.

    Hope this helps.

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    Brandy Sinco, BS, MA, MS
    Statistician and Programmer/Analyst
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Accommodations for visually impaired

    Posted 02-12-2018 09:15
    ​I recently had a visually impaired student who used a software that can read SPSS and/or STATA. The course was intensive on data analyses and the student did a superb job.

    The student had a challenge in graphs. I had some multiple choice questions about some graphs and the student needed someone to explain what the graph shows but then the student was very able to answer the MCQs.


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    Ziyad Mahfoud
    Associate Professor
    Weill Cornell Medical College-Qatar
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Accommodations for visually impaired

    Posted 02-12-2018 10:44

    Hi Stephen

    I have been functioning as a visually impaired (but definitely not blind) statistician for many years.  I might be able to help with your efforts to accommodate low vision students – but I confess that I am as mystified as you regarding how a totally blind person would function as a statistician.  I doubt that there are many who do so.   

     

    My preferred accommodations include the use of a very large monitor and avoidance of "dashboard" style interfaces that divide my screen into many small windows with correspondingly small print.  I like to use command driven interfaces (now mostly in R and STAN) and I avoid writing reports in Word whenever possible. Xtable (in R),  R's capabilities for producing graphics in pdf format, Latex's facilities for handling pdf graphics, tables and mathematical text make it fairly easy for me to function.  I also do most of my reading using text-to-speech software – so obtaining statistical material in computer readable form is very important (and not all that hard these days).  Most texts are available in kindle (there is a very helpful low vision version of Kindle).  There are also many good programs that read pdfs and word documents aloud (I use Open Book).  This is very useful for journal articles and internal reports (protocols, SAPs etc).   

     

    That said, I still need to look at equations, tables and graphics. I suppose that a totally blind statistician would need to do this tactilely – with raised line diagrams or braille. It seems to me that doing this routinely on a daily basis would be very time-consuming.   

     

    I think that the main issue that your low vision students are likely to encounter is that many employer's will not give them the freedom to use the readily available tools that they need.

     

    Hope this helps.  Happy to help with any specifics that come up in your teaching.

     

    Best

    John

     

     

    John H. Warner, PhD, MBA

    Director, Biostatistics

    CHDI Management / CHDI Foundation

    155 Village Boulevard, Suite 200

    Princeton, NJ, 08540

    (609) 945-9644: office

    (609) 751-7345: cell

    (609) 452-2160: fax

    john.warner@CHDIfoundation.org

     




    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Accommodations for visually impaired

    Posted 02-13-2018 12:09
    A blind statistician, Jonathan Godfrey, has presented several times at useR about how he uses screen readers with R. You may want to watch his talks, R Markdown: Livesaver or Deathtrap? or Interactive Graphics for Blind and Print Disabled People. He has an R package, brailleR, and a page about a variety of statistical software, and why he prefers to use R. 
    ~Amelia

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    Amelia McNamara
    Smith College
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    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: Accommodations for visually impaired

    Posted 02-14-2018 09:15
    I went to a talk about SAS accessibility at SESUG 2017 given by a visually-impaired statistician.  I believe he led SAS's accessibility group.  SAS has a link to its accessibility products: https://www.sas.com/en_us/company-information/accessibility.html

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    Chuck Coleman
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    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: Accommodations for visually impaired

    Posted 03-01-2018 11:27

    We had a visually impaired statistician working in my department, who was not but became for about 10 years working here. Only thing we could accommodate him with a software, reading text, and when he needed a help, someone explained a graph and such for around 10 years or more.

     

    Gideon Bahn

    Lead Biostatistician

    Cooperative Study Program

    5000 5th Ave.

    Building 1 B-205

    Hines, IL 60141

     




    Original Message


  • 10.  RE: Accommodations for visually impaired

    Posted 03-02-2018 11:09
    A visually impaired person may well need to have a basic understanding of statistics in order to understand the work of others.  However, choosing to try to become a statistician seems ill-advised because graphics are so central to our work.

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    Emil M Friedman, PhD
    emilfriedman@gmail.com
    http://www.statisticalconsulting.org
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    Original Message


  • 11.  RE: Accommodations for visually impaired

    Posted 03-05-2018 10:37
    It would be interesting to hear from a few visually-impaired statisticians.

    When I read your note, Emil, I remembered the experience of a roommate at college.  He and another roommate were taking the same physics course IIRC, and the other student was blind.  Physics can be somewhat of a visual discipline, too, although in a different way.  The professor worked it out so that the sighted student would take the test first.  Later, he would read the test questions to the blind student, who would work them out, using his Braille typewriter and slide rule to keep track of complex calculations, and then recite the answers back to the sighted student, who would write them down.  I think they may have done this on homework, too.

    As I recall, the sighted student was blown away that the blind student seemed to do noticeably better in physics than he did, even though he had all the supposed advantages of sight.

    Bill


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    Bill Harris
    Data & Analytics Consultant
    Snohomish County PUD
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    Original Message


  • 12.  RE: Accommodations for visually impaired

    Posted 03-07-2018 10:29
    Even statisticians who are not visually impaired can benefit from considering accommodations for those who are.
    Yes, graphics are central to our work - and central to the graphic is its message.
    A blind statistician with access to someone sighted can start there and build, reverse-engineering the graphic starting with alternative text that is attached for software that reads to people with visual impairment.
    Using something in addition to color to distinguish features of the graphic helps people who are colorblind understand the graphic's message.

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    Alicia Toledano
    President
    Biostatistics Consulting, LLC
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    Original Message


  • 13.  RE: Accommodations for visually impaired

    Posted 03-07-2018 11:34
    Dear Bill,

    Thank you so much for sharing your experience. It reminded me of a neurology lab course I took in college where we did surgeries on small animals (I did biology before biostatistics), also before there were formal accommodations for disabilities but sometime between slide rules and scientific calculators. The student in our class who was blind worked with a different pair of sighted students each week, who would explain what was happening and help him be hands-on without injury. Working with this blind student was amazing. It was nice to read your story about a professor, classmate, and blind student who did not let blindness hold him back.

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    Alicia Toledano
    President
    Biostatistics Consulting, LLC
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    Original Message


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