Ideas for calculators with visually impaired students.

Of course, none of these may be helpful for Braille students, but are useful for visually impaired students. The first, found below, is something "from a teacher" that had distributed to T3 instructors. It involves using the TI Presenter with a small TV or computer monitor.

Also, I have heard of success with someone just using the view screen panel. A special white board had been constructed by the industrial technology department to hold the view screen on the student's desk. The student just looked at the output directly on the view screen, not its projection on the wall.

Also, I have heard success with using a graphing calculator emulator on a computer because it can be enlarged enough so that those with poor vision can see both the keys and the screen output.

Finally, is a talking calculator - not a graphing calculator, however. This talking calculator talks and echoes the number when it is being pressed. When I went to the web site I did not expect much when I saw that it was free. Well, I have been told that it is really helpful and incredibly easy to use. You can find it at www.readingmadeeasy.com .

The following websites offer a variety of tools designed for the blind or visually impaired regarding mathematics and in particular graphing. As I have gotten a number of requests for graphing calculators for the blind, I thought you all might want these web addresses as well.

• http://www.tsbvi.edu/math/tools-blind.htm
• http://www.rit.edu/~easi/easisem/graphaph.html
• http://www.tsbvi.edu/Outreach/seehear/winter02/math.htm
• http://www.rit.edu/~easi/nsfppd/9712608.htm
• http://www.rit.edu/~easi/easisem/haptic.html

-Thanks go to Melody DeRosa for this information