Re: An inquiry about Mathematics courses and Braille
I didn't read through all of your post, as I skipped right to the questions.
But to answer them in a sort of haphazard kind of way, here I go.
I went through high level math in courses such as Calculus 1 through 3, Differential Equations, Analysis, number theory, etc etc. I know different universities call their courses differently sometimes, but I minored in math, and for that, I took almost all the courses a regular math major would take, except for maybe 2 or 3 extra courses usually taken by a fourth year undergraduate math student.
I know many people will push back when I say this, but learn LaTeX. Braille is certainly a way to go, but there is no guarantee that you can get access to all the material you'll need in Braille. While still in regular k-12 schooling, we have more room to ask for things and have help from Braille specialists. Once you get to higher education, however, things aren't so straightforward.
So there is my partial answer. For much of my work, I used LaTeX and had no problems with 1.5 testing time. For graphs, I bought tactile graph paper and the draftsman tool from APH for non-graph shapes. BTW, I was also Electrical Engineering major, so that definitely came in handy for my circuit work.
Graph paper came in handy for both creating and receiving graphs. Close communication with professors came in handy for sure!
As for notetaking, I just used a laptop and wrote in my own little notation for taking notes, int for integral, lim for limits, etc. Pretty much adopting LaTeX format.
Also, and this is kind of me cheating, but I was actually working for a publishing company while in college, and at the time, I just so happened to be working as a main developer on a math tool that served as an editor of equations, and I leveraged it to generate math notations for me for things like homework assignments.
I wouldn't say Braille is obsolete when it comes to math. In fact, if you can ever get math under your fingers, it's a refreshing feeling and helps dissect equations a bit faster, at least for me.
But I have to say, if you want more independence, really try to stick to using a Laptop.
I will warn you though, Physics is a bit more complicated. If I had to pick which courses to hire a reader for, I would definitely recommend it for Physics courses. But definitely someone who knows Physics. It's not so difficult for the first few semesters in courses like Mechanics or Electricity and Magnitism, but once you get into higher level Physics, find a partner or a reader. Of course, this assumes you'll be doing a lot of these courses.
Anyway, these are the answers I can provide for now. Hope this helps even a little. If this was a few years ago, I would have even offered to help you learn some of these things. However, I can no longer dedicate myself to that task.
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