Hello to everyone here at the Access India forum. I'm a visually impaired person with an MPhil in mathematics, and I've been teaching mathematics as a lecturer at a mainstream college in the provincial government's department of higher education department. I've also been a member of the RNIB from 2004 to 2006.
I've also been a Hadley School for the Blind student since Nov. 2004 and have so far completed courses in English, the Nemeth Code, word processing, the Internet basics; nowadays I'm pursuing a course on the Unified English Braille (UEB) and chess! Though I know braille and am familiar with JAWS and MAGic, in my teaching of mathematics [ I've been for the last few years teaching analysis and functional analysis to the BS in Mathematics students.] I mostly rely on my residual vision: I'm able to read the inkprint and write using my eyesight, though from a distance of hardly six inches and that too not in the sunlight! My schooling started at a local school for sighted children in 1986, where I stayed for less than a year before being admitted to my local school for the blind in 1987, and I stayed at that school till 1994, when I passed my matriculation examination and joined college [It was the same college where I'm teaching now.] Even during my studies at that school for the blind, I remained in touch with the inkprint reading and writing (entirely on my own!) and so was able to start college without having to use braille or audio. At college, I opted for mathematics, statistics, and economics as my intermediate-level subject combination, but our mathematics education at the school for the blind was extremely poor! My eyesight problem and poor financial family background [My father worked as a truck driver.] meant that I had to mostly do without any tutorial support; the result was that in my Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) I could manage to score only 62%. Although I kept myself in touch with inkprint right through my blind school years, my handwriting was still too slow and child-like even when I joined college, resulting in my compulsion to rely on a sighted person to write my exam papers for me, which is a not-so-easy task in mathematical subjects. I had to engage a sighted person as a writer in my HSSC, 2-year B.Sc., and 2-year M.Sc. exams. It was only in my MPhil coursework that I could muster enough confidence in my handwriting to write my own exam papers. The difference was that, unlike my previous board and university examinations which had all been under an annual system and marked externally, the MPhil papers were set and marked by the very instructor who was teaching the course. I also started learning JAWS scripting back in 2005 but then couldn't hold on to it due to one reason or the other. Nowadays, I'm learning the Python programming language from a video course taught by a Prof. John Guttag back in 2011 and now available at the MIT Open CourseWare (OCW) website. Although I did study one semester of M.Sc. in Computer Science back in 1999, I would still rate my computer experties at the beginner's level (or thereabouts). I feel that I started on so many things without being to stick to anything in particular. I post my question to a webstie called Stack Exchange, particularly on the Mathematics Stack Exchange. Here's the link to my MSE profile. http://math.stackexchange.com/users/59734/saaqib-mahmuud I occasionally post on Facebook as well and have liked the NDTV Facebook page, as well as that of Burkha Dutt. BBC Urdu and Hindi are both my favorites (perhaps the latter more than the former); I also would like to be able to access Doordarshan Urdu. I've also been a reader of the Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind from Aug. 2001 till Nov. 2009, when they stopped their braille edition. Due to my rather limited Internet bandwidth, the live video streaming is often not good enough; so I wish that NDTV 24 7, NDTV India, and Doordarshan each could also start a live audio stream, just like the live audio streams of Dunya News TV, a Pakistani channel. Would anyone here also like to concur with me on this point? I think I've introduced myself quite thoroughly (a little too thoroughly, I'm afraid). Anyway, should anybody like to get in touch with me, here's my contact information. Mobile Phone Number: 0092-346-952-7638 Number for WhatsApp: 0092-334-541-7958 E-mail: saaqib1...@yahoo.co.in I can also give out my postal (or geographical) address, should anybody want it. I would be glad to socialise with members of the Access India mailing list community and be helpful in whatever way I can. Regards. Sincerely, Saaqib Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
