Assessing the mathematics related communication requirements of the blind in education and career

Abstract

Educational and career opportunities for the blind would be greatly expanded if they could function in sighted environments. A sighted environment is defined as a dialog involving non-trivial mathematics; which employs visual renderings of the math discussed; and where no provision is made for blind participants. After itemizing the common visual media found in the typical classroom and workplace, this paper lists the minimum requirements necessary for the blind to function in a sighted environment. The foremost challenges will be 1) the conversion of all visual lines of math related communication into blind accessible formats; and 2) performing those conversions fast enough to provide synchronous communication between the blind user and his sighted peers. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.