I don't have a solution to your question, but I would be willing to make an electronic version (Word) of the book available to you. I don't know if that would speed the text-to-voice conversion, but it might. In that version the equations are set with MathType 5.0, although individual characters are often set using the standard symbol font.
I know that in the past Gary McClelland at Univ. of Colorado has worked with blind students studying statistics. It is possible that he could be of help. His address is Gary McClelland <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Let me know if there is anything that I can do to help. For many students, learning statistics when you can see the formulae is hard enough.
Dave
At 10:22 AM 4/2/2004 -0500, you wrote:
I am looking for help in dealing with text that contains mathematical
symbols, which has to be recognized by a text-to-voice conversion
system. We are using Jaws, in this case. This is for the benefit
of two blind students I have in the class, and who are bravely
attempting a major in Psychology. The text is D. Howell's
"Fundamental Statistics for the Behavioural Sciences".
First we scan the text using Omnipage into an electronic version.
However, Omnipage skips over math symbols, and we have to edit the
output to make it suitable for Jaws, which converts it to voice.
When dealing with an entire textbook, this can be very slow work.
This university has a well-resourced Disability Unit that our students
can rely on, but my course textbook remains a problem for them.
It would be nice to hear from other people with experience in this
kind of process. Perhaps someone has useful suggestions for making
it more efficient, or persons to make contact with?
Other than the Howell text, are there perhaps more general materials
available for teaching basic applied statistics with blind students?
Frank Bokhorst
Psychology Dept.
University of Cape Town
South Africa
.
.
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