Math grant offers new opportunities
A National Science Foundation grant for $75,000 may offer students with disabilities a new perspective on math.
GC&SU Mathematics Department Chair Dr. Lila Roberts received the grant and served as Principle Investigator for the project, Accessible Online Resource for Mathematics Students and Instructors. The project is geared towards students with visual and hearing impairments. She said the difficulties faced by students with disabilities who have already been through the math department were part of the inspiration for the project.
“One of the things that got it started was that we had a blind student in the math department,” Roberts said. “I was shocked at the lack of resources we could find.”
The Adaptation and Implementation Grant will utilize Demos with Positive Impact (http://mathdemos.gcsu.edu), a Web site that currently offers practice examples for math professors and students.
“It will provide accessibility to math for those who can’t go to the website and look at the materials,” Roberts said. “(Math) is harder for people who have a sensory disability, and we’re hoping that (this) will provide some resources for those students who wouldn’t normally have them.”
The project will enhance existing animation on the Web site to include captions and audio, and it will adapt the site for screen readers who read text from computer screens. Math Instructor Ken Flowers said such technology would have been helpful when he was teaching a visually impaired student.
“I had a hard time with a blind student a year ago,” Flowers said. “I think anything audibly-focused for them will help. I think most of us have a hard time knowing what they need.”
According to Roberts, these needs will be satisfied by evaluation experts specializing in visual and hearing impairments.
Third year student Chris Herrell has a hearing impairment much like those the project is meant to target. However, Herrell is unsure exactly how much assistance the project will offer impaired students.
“I don’t see how it would help because math is more mental. Most everything is visual, so if you need help, then an actual tutor would be more help,” Herrell said. “The main thing a student with an impairment can do is sit in the front of the class.”
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Sep 23 2005. Filed under News.
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