Visual Impairment & STEM > National Resources on VI > Articles

National Resources on VI > Articles

The following articles relate to the provision of accessible STEM across both school and HE sectors.

Visual Impairment in MSOR (2009), E Rowlett & P Rowlett

Download the article: 9443_rowlett_e_and_rowlett_p_visualimpairment.pdf

Mathematics, statistics and operational research (MSOR) present unique difficulties in the accessibility of content for students with visual impairments which are often little understood and so can be overlooked. This paper focuses on areas where MSOR subjects differ from general accessibility considerations, drawing on a qualitative study of staff and students from four UK universities.

Accessibility in MSOR: one student's personal perspective (2008), E Rowlett

Download the article: 8127_rowlett_e_sswd_accessibility.pdf

This article is a first person account of Emma Rowlett's experiences of having sat in on the first
five weeks of a foundation maths course to see how she would handle maths given that she is visually impaired.

Obtaining Braille Mathematical Documents (2007), M Whapples

Download the article: Whapples_M.pdf

A first person account by Michael Whapples, a blind student who completed a physics degree at Nottingham University. Michael discusses the challenges of trying to find suitable written physics materials that he can read, and the approaches used to overcome these challenges.

Mathematical Equations in Braille (2007), S Maddox

Download the article: Maddox_S.pdf

Physics lecture notes include a great deal of mathematics. Steve Maddox of the School of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Nottingham investigated several ways to produce mathematical Braille from LaTeX files, and chose to use the Duxbury Braille Translator (DBT). This article discusses his decision and experiences in further detail.