Re: Physics for a blind student

["Daniel L. MacIsaac" <Dan.MacIsaac@NAU.EDU>]

> I would think that it would be important to ascertain whether this student
> has been blind from birth.  If so, you cannot appeal to remembered images
> of spatial concepts - a much more challenging pedagogical situation.
>
> Keep a journal - your experience will be valuable!
>
> Bob
>
> > Our disabilities coordinator has asked me if a blind student could
> > attend, and be successful in, my Physics class in the Fall.
> > . . .
> > Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me.
> > Peter Schoch
> > Sussex County Community College

Two years ago I had a blind student (NOT blind from birth) top the section
of my 50 student lecture devoted to college level DC circuits analysis.  It
took a long time to articulate the problems to him, but he had remarkable
abilities to contruct and work with mental images of schematics.  He did have
trouble finding a copy of the text on tape or on disk as ASCII -- he had
a computer program that read ASCII aloud he used a lot.  I'd check w/your
text publisher ASAP for this.  You will also need a good physics student to
describe circuits, FBDs, ray diagrams from the text into words and terms
the student can use.

Dan M

Dan MacIsaac, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Northern AZ Univ
danmac@nau.edu          http://purcell.phy.nau.edu         PHYS-L list owner