TRANSCRIPT
Workflows from Teacher to Student and Student to Teacher
3/13/25

>>Sara Larkin: I'm Sarah Larkin. I am the statewide math consultant in Iowa. Specifically for kids that are blind or visually impaired?

>>Susan Osterhaus: And I'm Susan Osterhaus, and I'm the statewide mathematics consultant for the outreach program at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Here in Austin, Texas.

>>Tina Herzberg: Tina Herzberg, and I am not a math consultant, but I love math. And I actually, I'm professor and coordinate the visual impairment Education Program at the University of South Carolina Upstate, but I'm originally from Texas. And we are here today to talk about workflows. And so we're real excited to talk with you. I will tell you this is what This to me is like one of the most exciting presentations because we did something similar about six months ago. And it's incredible, y'all, is how many slides we needed to update just because of how many updates And we're talking great progress that we're seeing with our technology. So I'm super excited. I think we all are to be able to share with you all today. So our three objectives are that you will be at the very end able to describe at least two workflows for producing accessible math. We're going to give you a lot more than two, but at least two. Identify three ways that students can express their math learning. And describe three different factors that may influence workflows. So we thought it might be helpful to actually begin, well, what do you mean by digital workflow? So we have a definition. That when we are using the word workflow, we are referring to this efficient electronic system for accessing, processing, sharing, and storing work. And what is really amazing about it is that with digital workflows, we can really reduce a student's reliance on other team members for accessible materials, including their teachers and including their paraprofessionals where they really get to be able to do a lot of the process themselves. It's also tied to assessment and goals. And it aims to increase a student's independence and self-advocacy because y'all were really all trying to work ourselves out of a job, right? Because by the time they leave high school, we need them to be proficient. And really have these workflows down so that when the TBI is no longer there, that they're still very successful. And then it also addresses needed skills for future access to work environments and higher learning. So all about preparing for the future. So we wanted to begin with sharing a little bit about some available workflow planning tools. There are two, and Sarah Larkin is actually one of the authors of the digital math workflow planning tool. Now, I've got to say, I really like Sarah's and I'll tell you why I like Sarah's. It is a version of Jessica's, but what I like about it is that not only do you get about the roles of the different team members and what everybody's responsible for. It also includes like what training is needed But you also get input, okay, from the classroom teacher. These are all the kind of digital tools we're going to use in the different academic classes. The TBI about, hey, these are all the tools that they have, all the AT they use. And which ones are they proficient in and which ones were still like a work in progress? And then you also get to talk about what are specific tasks that students will be completing in different classes and how will they be accomplished? So if you haven't checked out Sarah's tool, I really recommend it. The second one's by Jessica McDowell. I actually really like this one as well. The one thing I noticed, Sarah has a few more check boxes where it just makes it a little easier for us. But Jessica's is a great one as well. You know, once again, it really just helps the team really look at What's in place now and then what little tweaks are needed and then what kind of like trainings do we need? And it might be the student needs training, but it also might be the paraprofessional and who knows, it might be the TVI. Or classroom teacher. So… It helps teams determine possible digital workflows It also assists with establishing priorities. And then it also allows us to plan how math content will get from the teacher to the student. Because y'all, this is really important. And, you know, sometimes it may look just like it does for everybody else in that class, but sometimes it may look a little different. So let's say they're in Google Classroom. Not all Google products are totally accessible. Sarah's going to talk more about it later. But that might not be the best way of getting content to the student who's a braille reader in their classroom. And then it also allows us to plant how math work and answers will be shared from the student to the teacher. And then we also need a plan in place for when content is not accessible because y'all, technology is getting better every day. But there's still a lot of digital math tools that are not completely accessible. And so what's going to be the plan whenever those are used so that the student still gets access to that same content as everybody else? So here are a few factors that can impact the workflow. So first of all, it's accessibility of apps and digital math content that's used by the school. And y'all, if every school is a little bit different, that's the one thing I figured out across time. And so just because you might see one app being used in one school By the time the student goes from like middle school to high school, it may look very different. Sometimes it's availability of technology. I know in some places where there are a lot of like note takers But I live in a state where I know of like two students in our whole state that actually use a note taker. So we just don't have a lot of those. But now we have a lot of refresher barrel displays. We have a lot of laptops and iPads. So our availability of technology may look different than what students have in other districts and other states. Sometimes it's all about, you know, this factor might be the skills of the student or the TVI. So depending on those skills that that might impact what decisions we make. And then sometimes it's about the learning needs and preferences. You know, I know some students who really like reading on their refresh royal displays But they still need access to like the hard copy for the graphics. And then I know there's some other students who are like, oh, wait a minute, I'd much rather like write my math with my laptop, but then use my refresh wall display. And then there's some still like, hey, I like some hard copy braille. So you really have to kind of look at the learning needs and the preferences of the students as well. And then, of course, about the age of the student. Of what we might expect a third grader to do might look very different than what we might expect. For someone in a high school. So Sarah, Susan, and I are all three part of a team. With Perkins School for the Blind and is part of it. It's called the Team Initiative. And what we are looking at is building more tools for digital math. And one of the first things that we actually did was create these best practices. Because y'all, you know, sometimes that, you know, when we're going and we're asking administrators why we need to purchase additional technology. We haven't had something like Reality go back to, but now we actually have something to say, hey, this is not just me. This is the best practice in our field. And so like by the time that my student gets into middle school or high school, they really need to know or be able to be working on a laptop. Even if everybody else maybe has a Chromebook. I hope you'll check these out, but we have different items from pre-K to kindergarten Two of the key things that learning to use apps on tablet. So yeah, we really start young with the technology and learning the gestures. And then on elementary that we're moving toward the note takers and refreshable displays. And they're also working on keyboarding skills. And then by the time they're in middle school and high school, we want to increase computer skills and their ability to navigate the web. And they're also learning how to use talking calculators, note takers, web-based calculators all the kind of calculators you can think of.

>>Sara Larkin: The title for this actually has a list for a more extensive document, so that link has even more in it.

>>Tina Herzberg: And then don't forget that it's really important to promote strong tech skills. So students can become more independent. Now, one thing we want to say that we really believe there's still a place for manipulatives. I absolutely believe this. So when students are first learning a concept or they're starting with a concept, it's particularly important. So we're not saying go away from manipulatives and that's not it at all. But that there are times maybe when manipulatives are fantastic and really useful. And then there's also times that we really need to promote the technology. And I will say that in the next month, we actually are coming up with kind of a checklist of for a manipulative so that we are definitely not excluding them at all. They say a picture's worth a thousand words, so there's still a need for tactile graphics when learning, teaching, and reinforcing math skills. Absolutely. So an image description doesn't really take place or replace a tautographic. And that includes in math. And then there's still a need for Perkinsborough Rider when you're solving certain types of problems that involve multiple steps. Now, it's going to be interesting with the advent of the monarch. We'll see but You know, right now there's definitely the Perkins Burrider. Even when, let's say they don't have a You know, they may be like, I'm just thinking like long division. There's lots of things matrices There are times that it really comes on number lines that, you know, the Perkins Bar Rider, unless you have a multi-line display really comes in handy.

>>Sara Larkin: So Google, this is a big thing in the school districts now because so many school districts have Chromebooks. The problem is we don't have full accessibility with Google. When it comes to text. It works pretty well. But the minute we switch over to math. Now the accessibility goes down. Google documents still have lots of accessibility issues with math expressions and equations. So those screen readers are just not reading those well. At this point. In other words, if you are using a Google Classroom environment. Instead, whether it's Google Classroom or Google Drive, it's still really important to use Microsoft Word documents instead Because the accessibility comparison between Google Docs and Microsoft Word for those math expressions and equations. There's a huge difference. When we compare the two. So using Microsoft Word increases that accessibility for our students. What's nice is Google Drive allows those Microsoft Word documents. The other thing to be aware of is the fact that even if I upload A Microsoft Word document into a Google Drive or Google Classroom. If I access it from the online environment. It treats it accessibility-wise the same way it would treat a Google Doc. So because of that, it is important for our students that use screen readers to have that Google Drive desktop application. And Microsoft Office on their computers. Because then they can open up that document from Google Drive directly from their file explorer. And then they have all of those accessibility features within Word. It just increases the accessibility of it so much. If students upload those Word documents. To a Google Drive and let's say the classroom teacher does not have access to Microsoft Word. Or they open it in that drive or online environment. It is important to note that if it opens up in preview mode when doing that math. All of those equations and expressions are not there. And so I've had teachers contact me and say, hey, nothing's showing up. But it's because they're in preview mode. The minute they open it with Google Docs. All of those equations are are viewable. So it's just getting past that preview mode and then they can see all of those students equations. Learning management systems. So there's not just Google Classroom. There's also lots of other learning management systems as well. And so we want to use the same sort of idea there It's only as accessible as the content that's uploaded. If we upload a PDF file, we need to be aware that we often lose accessibility. For instance, I had a a Microsoft Word document that was completely accessible. I then saved it as a PDF. And then it read a problem, something like one third plus one fourth And gave me 11. It ignored the denominators and it ignored any operation between those two fractions. So we have to be aware that PDFs for math need a lot of extra work to increase the accessibility of Even if I use OCR, OCR frequently does not recognize that math. And same thing with pictures, the alt text for pictures, things like that. So I actually have included a link to a video And feel free to share this with teachers and with districts. What I've done is I've opened the same document the same file. I've saved it four different ways and then shown how that same file interacts different ways with screen readers in different environments. And it really shows the differences that using an actual Microsoft microsoft Word document. Helps those students. So now we're going to talk a little bit just about What does that workflow look like for student to teacher? We'll talk about teacher to student later. We're going to start with student to teacher. The big pieces for that workflow would include technologies such as a Perkins Braille writer, the Braille note taker. Microsoft Equation Editor or the JAWS braille Math Editor, or even the Equalize editor. There's three different editors that that really a student could use. There's also the Desmos graphing calculator and of course the Orion TI-84 plus talking graphing calculator that has been around now for quite a while. So let's talk about the Perkins Braille writer first. The biggest thing is it allows that student to move easily back and forth. Between what they have written in prior steps And what they want to write for that next step. It really gives them the big picture. Those braille displays are most of them. Especially with cost, our single line braille displays that a student has access to. Well, the thing with math we use those previous steps when we're trying to go on to the next step. So being able to easily refer back to those helps make it possible to not use as much of that working memory They don't have to keep as much in their head. And can just refer back to what they've brailled. It also allows us or the student to use symbols that for representing a word problem. For representing arrays or fractions or number lines It's a chance for students to really represent a picture just using that Braille writer. Math is important. For students to express their reasoning using pictures. And so the Braille writer gives the student the ability to do that. The Braille note takers. And I know those are a little more expensive So it does vary across the US. As far as how many students have those Braille note takers. But it does allow the student to use their Braille mask. Codes. It does include a scientific calculator and a graphing calculator. The tricky piece is the graphing calculator is still going to be that single line display. So it's a little more abstract than it is on some of the other calculators. And it does allow that student to email the math teacher and have it show up in print on the other end. I know that this is especially true for the Braille scents. The brown note. There are some extra steps in there, but I know that they've been working on it. And so soon, if not recently. It is supposed to be able to increase that print to braille and braille to print. As well on the Touch Plus. So Microsoft Equation Editor. There has been a lot that has evolved just over the last couple weeks in this area. We already knew. That this is well known by a lot of math teachers. There are a lot of them that use it to create worksheets and assessments. It's already part of Microsoft Word. So it's not one more thing that's going to cost the district if they have Microsoft Office. They automatically have Word and in turn automatically have Microsoft Equation Editor. All you have to do is alt equals. Is the keystroke and then the students can use Other keystrokes to enter in any math that they might need to. That is accessible with a screen reader. And it's nice because it shows up in print as the student is typing that equation. It does require keyboarding skills, so the students need to have that prior instruction. It also allows the student to email that document and the teacher is going to be able to read it. Also, if I have a Braille display attached to my computer, it's going to show up in Nemeth Code. With that refreshable braille display. Or in UEB. There is a demo that we've included a link for of me using the equation editor as if I was a student. Using a screen reader. And then the new thing is the last link that we've given you called comprehensive list comprehensive that the Daisy Consortium just put together. A few members of that have done a lot of work. To make an accessible webpage that tells the students or teachers Just the keystrokes. What's nice about this is the same keystrokes work whether you're using a screen reader or not. So the student or teacher can use it.

>>Susan Osterhaus: Okay, and now we're going to talk a little bit about jaws and the Braille Math Editor. What you need here, you need to have Jaws. You need to have Microsoft Word. And you need a braille display. It's available in Microsoft Word with JAWS. It allows the student to type and view on a refreshable Braille display. What you're seeing here in the picture is a student has entered from their braille display an equation and you can see their braille. If you're sighted you can see their braille And right below it, it's pretty darn small, but you can also see the print. And eventually once they enter that. The print will show up on the document that's being hidden right now. Okay, it defaults to Nemeth, but just recently it now supports UEB math science as well. So that's something that's just happened pretty recently. And it shows in print as the student types. As I was just mentioning, you can see those braille dots. Of course, I'm more excited about seeing the Braille than I am the print. For those teachers who want to see the print, it is there, but you have to get your, I'm thinking about Donnie, you have to get your trifocals lined up to be able to see that. Okay. Allows the students then after they've created their document to go ahead and email that right off to their teacher who is cited, that is. And if their teacher is blind, they can be just like them. So that'll be wonderful. But we're going to presume that their math teacher is probably cited and will appreciate The print copy being sent off. Now, the demo video that we have here, we're putting the timestamp on these so that you know Depending on how much time you have that particular day to watch one of these videos, you'll know how much you're going to have to devote to that. The first demo video is pretty quick and dirty and just basically says what I just said before. It's Cody saying that you need JAWS, Microsoft Word, and a Braille display. And he just steps you all the way through. The one problem with it is That he says there is that it only does Nemeth now because, like I said, it just We just found out that we can now do UEB math and science as well. So the only problem with that first demo is that it doesn't show you how to do UEB math science. So if you want to Just a moment and I'll tell you where you can find that information now. The next demo is a student demo done by Campbell Rutherford. She was, I believe, a high school student when she did this demo. She's now in college. Wonderful, wonderful young woman. And she's given you a student demo video Again, it's just a Nemeth and it's quite a bit longer, but she gives you many more examples. Cody just like tries to introduce you and get you started. But of course, now that we do have the ability to put it into UAB Math Science, Dr. Denise Robinson came up with a demo video for UEB, which is just a little bit longer even than Campbell's. Demo video. And if you don't know who Denise Robinson is she is Very, very techie, very mathy. She herself was visually impaired for quite a long time and has gotten quite a bit of her eyesight back now. But she's been through it all. And then we finally have, for those people who, and I know there's some people like that. Who are not into watching videos. So if you're not into watching videos, you can go out to the last link Which is a post with instructions, pretty much the step by step like Cody was giving you. So we've given you lots of choices, lots of ways to learn how to use JAWS with your Braille math. Editor. And now we would like to talk about the equalize editor. And you'll notice that equalize editor is highlighted there because If you click on that, you will get right to it. And we're going to talk about, again, the student perspective. Later on, we'll talk a little bit more about the teacher perspective. But right now. We're looking at this from the student's perspective. It instantly shows up in Braille when let's say your teacher, it says when typing in print, this wouldn't necessarily be your student this might be Let's say you're sitting next to the math teacher as a student. And you've got your you have you're connected with your rail display. And the math teacher typed something in print, it's going to instantly show up what it's going to instantly show up in Braille. And I think I just transposed those. Instantly shows up in braille when typing in print. So when the math teacher types it in print. You're going to see it in Braille as a student. And then as you're typing in Braille, they're going to instantly see it in print. And at the very bottom, if you can see that. Picture, that's what's showing up. If you're doing X squared plus y squared equals four. If you are the math teacher and you type in x squared plus y squared equals four, as you are instantly, as you're typing that up, it is showing up as you see right below in the Nimeth code. Even with the switch indicators and vice versa with the student doing it in Braille, the math teacher could see it or the TVI. We'll be able to see it in print. So it allows the student to type in NIMH code and view a NIMH code. And then the math teacher can type in print and see it in print and see it in Nimeth code as well. Okay, now it can be saved as HTML for viewing in any web browser. And so far, we've been kind of talking about more using the keyboard, but it also, this has use of palettes. And I don't know if you can see it very well, but there is actually, if you look at the screen there, you should be able to see that there's some pallets there, which mean it will have things like square root or fraction, whatever, if they want to use the palette. They can go ahead and use that. But I'm not going to go into any demonstration of all that. Because I have a place to send you for that. But it allows those pallets to be used when you don't know that particular symbol. And it does not support UEB math science though. So let you know that. And as far as videos. We have the teacher hat video. Which, by the way, this is a product that Sam Dooley has come up with. And so I'm just letting you know that he will be the one who his voice is the one you will be hearing. And he's come up with a teacher hat video Which basically shows the teacher how to create a particular worksheet. And then the student chat video shows the student. So that's what we're mostly interested in here right now is that the student is able to open up that teacher hat document and is able to go ahead and put their answers right there inside that document as they're working those problems out. Pretty neat. And then Sam has just gotten so excited. We did ask him to do the teacher hat and the student hat video, but he has taken off now. I think he, I feel like he's doing I feel like one new video every week or something because he's got like 20 20 some videos. I can't keep up with it and him now. All kinds of different topics. Just go and have fun. Go to his EE YouTube channel there. And pick whatever topic is what your student is working on and you will be able to do it. I promise. Okay. Now, the Desmos graphing calculator, again, if you click on that link, you'll get right to the calculator. And this is usually this a graphing calculator is usually used in middle or high school. It used to be that we used to think of this only happening, you know, giving out a graphing calculator to students in high school. But let me tell you, most on grade level students are taking Algebra 1 in eighth grade these days. And if they're not for sure in middle school, they are still starting on at least pre-algebra skills. And pretty much, I would say maybe even more for science. They are required to have at least a scientific calculator. Well, what's really nice about this is when you have a graphing calculator like Desmos. You have both the scientific and the graphing all together. And sometimes it's a lot easier to learn one calculator, not have to switch over. So our recommendation i think is that if they can start with a calculator that they can use from middle through high school They are just going to be so much much better at using it. And Sarah and I had a recent presentation and someone asked, how do you pack all of this into the limited time we have. So again, that's another consideration that this way the student has A longer time to adjust and learn all of the various things that they need to learn to enable them to use this graphing calculator. So start as early as you can. As I was saying, probably in middle school, and it'll take them through high school and beyond. Okay. So what does this allow the student to do? You can share graphs with the math teacher. Or the TVI for that matter, if the TVI wants to see all those graphs, that's great too. Find key important points on the graphs independently. It can be used, as I mentioned already, as a scientific calculator as well. So if the science teacher says you need a scientific calculator, you've already got one. By the way, Desmos does have something that's just called a a regular scientific calculator to if they insist on that. And you can use this with a web browser and a screen reader. And the next link gives you accessibility information and a demo from Desmos itself. So you can go to that link and learn all about it from the creators. However, if you want to learn from one of our own, you'll notice Because we're at a TSBDI tech tea time right now. Well, in January, the end of January, Sarah did the TSBBI Tech Tea Time webinar. That's not easy to say quickly. And she did a great job. So that's like only what, a month and a half old. So that's the latest and greatest. So be sure that you go and see that webinar.

>>Donna: And Susan this is Susan, this is Donna. Sorry to interrupt there because you are an amazing advertiser.

>>Susan Osterhaus: Okay, I'm a great advertiser. Yes, Donna?

>>Donna: Sam is actually in the room with us right now, and we do have a tea time for the equation editor as well that Sam did. So it is in our library

>>Susan Osterhaus: Okay, so we've got lots of, we've been We love Donna and we love tech tea time exactly And one thing that they are coming up with now is the geometry tool. And we went back and forth about whether we should say anything to you about it. And we feel like it's still just in progress. We have asked Desmos, the Desmos people, if they would come up with kind of like they did with the accessibility information and demo for the graphing calculator. We have asked them to come up with a and accessible video showing the geometry tool. And we haven't received that yet, but they are working on it. It's just you can use it, but it's pretty hard. And Tina can testify to that. Tina, do you want to say a little word about that? I know you've tried it with a couple of students.

>>Tina Herzberg: I did. And I will say the student that had low vision actually did quite well with it and it was it was pretty easy. I will say that the student that was using a screen reader, we were trying to do transformations and it was pretty hard. There were just some of the Of the menus you really can't get to with just a keystroke. And so, yeah, there were just several issues with it. It was kind of frustrating. But I know they're working on it and I'm really hopeful. But I'm going to wait next time until I see that video before I try again with a screen reader.

>>Susan Osterhaus: Okay. All right. And there is, as Sarah said, it's been around a while. We do have the Orion TI-84 plus talking graphing calculator And by the way, I don't think we actually say it on this slide, but I do want to let you know we have a, I think we have a coffee TSBBI coffee hour on that somewhere. And what happened is originally it was originally created with a collaboration between APH and orbit research. And in fact, it still says APH on it, but it's no longer available from APH. So if you If you look out on APH and say, oh, I can't get it anymore, you can still get it, but you need to go to orbit research To purchase it. And you do have to pay real money. So I will just warn you about that. And it is generally used just like Desmos around middle school or high school. And we just like the fact that you could have a choice because some students You know, you know our students. They will love one thing and maybe hate something else, you know, or they just They're like any kid, like any adult. We like choices okay So this is another choice and it allows the student to use what other students are often using. Now, Desmos is becoming more popular, so I'm not sure if this is as much uh if they're still using the TID4 plus more or not, but they definitely, a lot of times they're still using the TI-84 plus And that way, if you have The students are using what the other students are using. They can communicate with their peers Along with their math teachers. Even parents sometimes, if the parent, it's been around a long, the TI-84 plus has been around quite a while. So a lot of times it's really easy to use And students kind of like having something that And math teachers too. There are some math teachers, in fact. They will say, I only want you using the calculator that I'm using in class. We have some that are just not quite as flexible as others. Okay. So it also, like the Desmos. Finds key or important points on the graph independently. And you can use the scientific portion or the graphing portion and it's on the same device. And if you go to this particular link. Which is a thing that I put together. It has just, it's And it basically it's a document. I think it's a Word document. When you download it. You will be given all kinds of links to videos, to documents. To help you with learning the Orion TI-84+. So just please download that if that's what you're interested in, download that. And then on that document. Tons and tons of links to the various videos, mostly that I have created in this particular case. And with a colleague who was in the short-term programs. At TSBVI. Her name is Margaret Edwards. So please, if you want to use that. Check that link out and hopefully you have all the links that you need there. And now we're going to start as I think it was Sarah who said, we were starting with the workflow student to teacher. Now we're going to look at the workflow that goes from the teacher to the student. Okay, so the first thing that types of things that we're going to talk about our translation software. How do we get from the print that the math teacher probably gives you in who knows what kind of format. Are you going to get it in a Word document with math type or are you going to get in a Word document with the equation editor. Are you going to get it as a PDF? Are you going to get it as something that's going to get it Yeah, exactly. But JPEG, are you going to get it? Oh, you're not even going to get a hard copy at all. It's Oh, by the way, just go to the website and just get it there. Get that thing off. I don't know what it's in, but it's on the website. Just go get it.

>>Sara Larkin: A photograph.

>>Susan Osterhaus: So anyway, that's what we need as far as translating. And then we have something called the math kicker AI that we'll get into. And we have Microsoft Word with Equation Editor that I talked about. And then, of course, you could have math type too. And we're going to talk about the equalize editor again. And as Donna already advertised again, we have a tech tea time or two with Sam Dooley. So be sure to look that up. And then we have that Desmos graphing calculator again. So this is kind of, you're going to hear a little bit of a repeat But again, going now from teacher to student okay So I get to start, they made me start with this one. This is translation software, Braille 2000, only because I happen to have this on my computer. I don't tend to use Braille 2000 myself. But I have it and what I use it for is mainly if we're having any accessibility issues. When we are creating documents, I open it up in Braille 2000 and make sure that I can open it in Braille 2000, that let's say we create a BRF file that we're able to go ahead and open it Up in Braille 2000 and that it is working correctly. Now, you can Here's the problem, though. You can currently save Microsoft Word files as RGF files and then open them in Braille 2000. That's different from your regular Microsoft Word document. You have to change it to an RTF first and then open them in Braille 2000 okay Now, write this on the second bullet here where I've got highlighted Braille 2000. If you click on that, you will get to their website and you will learn a lot more about what Braille 2000 is about. And it does have the ability to do UEB technical, which is what they want to call it. We call it UEB Math Science, UEB with Nemeth, which is Kind of what we call Nimeth with or Nimeth with UEB or whatever you know actually i think it is supposed to be UEB with Nemeth. We have Nimeth within UAB contacts. There's all kinds of things, but basically it's NEMA. He still kept eBay with Nemeth because there are a lot of people that are still using eBay with Nemeth. In fact. Are math textbooks at TSBVI are still in eBay with Nemis so I'm just saying there really are some people still having to read it that way. And then finally, it nubs. And if you're wondering what is nubs? Well, this was something that Dr. Nemeth Came up with before he came up with before passed away and it's called the Nemeth Uniform Braille system And he was hoping, and some of us were hoping that we would get nubs instead of UEB, but we went with UEB. However, there are a lot of STEM adults especially who really like nubs and they even have, you know, they even have a group of people who they really support NUBS and they use it in their As adults, they use it in the workforce, et cetera. So he's doing them quite when I think he, I'm talking about Bob Stepp. He is the one Who is behind Braille 2000. Now, at this time, I don't have version three. I have version two, but at this time, version three is coming along And he says it should be ready yet. Hopefully this summer, and it will have a math tools option. V3 will open. That's what we're hoping for, that it will then open those docs files. In other words, right now, as I mentioned. It's only opening up the RTF files from Microsoft Word. And it understands OMML and math ml including math operators, math symbols, Greek letters, subscripts, superscripts fractions, radicals, and combinations of these.

>>Sara Larkin: And if people are wondering what OMML is, that's Equation Editor.

>>Susan Osterhaus: And if you want… Yes. Okay.

>>Sara Larkin: That's the format that equation editor uses. Yep.

>>Susan Osterhaus: Thank you, Sarah. And I was about to say, I was about to ask, do you want to explain that to them? Okay. Now, if you really want to know the ins and outs, et cetera, he did come, Bob did come to our 2023 POSB STEM Conference or Institute. And that is the handout. If you link there, you will get his handout. Where you can go through all of all the various steps. Now you're probably wondering, well, if you don't use it, why are you putting Braille 2000 in here at all? As I mentioned, I like opening things up to make sure that it's We try to have as many of the different softwares as we can so that we can test them all to see how they're doing. And a lot, I don't know the numbers exactly, but I do know That a lot of transcribers, which includes paraprofessionals as brillis. Use Braille 2000 instead of Duxbury, for example. So again, if you go and speak with your Braille list or your transcriber or your paraprofessional, whoever is doing Braille for you, or if you yourself are doing the Braille. You may be using Braille 2000. Okay.

>>Sara Larkin: And as with Braille 2000 and the additional pieces of software that we're going to talk about Just to note that it is always good to double check. That the translation is correct with any tool you use. It really is just a tool. It does help simplify things. But we know with any type of software, there can be mistakes even with the software so just Just making sure that that is correct is always a good strategy. So the next one we're going to talk about is Duxbury DBT translation software. We found that to be really the most robust translation software when it comes to math and formatting. So if you're looking for the math and formatting piece specifically, that's kind of our go- We're able to create math in Microsoft word You can put text in there. You can integrate math inside of it. It'll be able to handle those equations and expressions. That you have entered with either math type or Microsoft Equation Editor. And then I like to use SWIFT. The big difference here is the fact that it has SWIFT. And now that we are using Nemeth within UEB or UEB with Nemeth. We have those switch indicators. And so SWIFT allows us, if I didn't use Swift at all. And I just did a straight translation every single equation that I entered would start Nemeth and Ed Nemeth. So you're going to get a ton of switch indicators in there. What SWIFT allows us to do, one of the things is it allows us to say, I want to start Nemeth here And I want to end Nemeth here. And then it will take out all of those other switch indicators in between the two. So it really decreases the number of switch indicators that are used within that document. It also is able to translate into UEB math science as well. And Swift has a template. For both the Nemeth Code and the UEV Math Science. We've given you a link to actually the website for Duxbury dbt It does work with most embossers. So that's a nice feature that it doesn't matter really what imposter you're using. You're still able to use that Duxbury. We've given you a short 13 minute video. That shows how to use math type with dbt and Swift that I've put together a little demo video. Just a note that even though it shows math type with dbt. The same thing can be done with Equation Editor with dbt. And swept. It does help to have that SWIFT installed. So usually when I'm talking to school districts, I ask them to have Microsoft Office. Ducksberry Ann Swift. If I'm going to be using that translation set. And then what swift does is it produces a Braille me. New right within Microsoft Word. And just gives you a lot of capabilities within it. Another software that's out there is the Tiger Software Suite. Now, this is also a really robust translation software. It's the thing that's nice about it is that you can do math and graphics within the same document. So having those graphics easily within that document is one of the benefits of using the Tiger software suite. You can use a math type and equation editor. Now, this is one of the slides we had to change. It used to be it only worked with meth type Now it works with Equation Editor as well. And you can produce UEB math science or the Nemeth Code The Tiger software suite really just works with those tiger embossers. It's meant for If you have that particular type of embosser. I've given you a demo video again, a link to a demo video, but it's nice that we can include images within our document. One of the disadvantages of Tiger Software Suite for now, although I've heard they're working on it. Is that there is not a way to decrease the number of Nemeth code switch indicators. So those have to be done manually. For those consecutive problems. So you have to go in And delete out all of those extra ones. At this point. And formatting. Has to be done by hand. So you would have to add, if it's supposed to start in cell three, you would have to go in and add those extra spaces to have it started cell three. So just some of those things are you need to be aware of if that's the particular software they're using. Like anything else, these softwares, these pieces have different benefits. And other things that maybe they don't do as well. So just being aware of those is important. Of course, another translation software. Is Braille Blaster one of the huge benefits of Braille Blaster is the fact that it is The thing is, it does have an ASCII math hub, which can be a little bit of a learning curve. That allows you to enter math directly within Brow Blaster. It also does allow you to open Microsoft Word documents that have equations where you've used equation editor. It does not work with meth type. So if you have something that you've created math type equations, it is going to ignore those. But it does work with Equation Editor. It's going to translate that to Namath Code or UEB math science Whatever your setting is within Braille Blaster for the math code. That is the math code that it uses. But just beware that it needs to be equation editor and not math type. Or needs to be entered in directly into Braille Blaster. It also does not automatically add those Nemeth switch indicators. So if you use Nemeth. You have to, you know, with VuePlus, you had to get rid of all of the extra switch indicators. With Braille Blaster, you have to add in the Nemeth switch indicators. So that takes a little extra time to add those particular ones in. One of the other advantages to Braille Blaster is You can, there's a little template that you can use to enter spatial math where you can just enter the problems. And it lays it out spatially for you. With Duxbury, you could six key it in. With Tiger Software Suite, you could six key it in. With Braille Blaster, you could actually enter in the problems numbers and it will space it out for you. All right, so we're done with translation software. We have lots of choices when it comes to translation software. But another tool that we have in our toolbox now that is relatively new, a little over a year old now, but At least, but it gives us some additional capabilities. We've given you the link to MathKicker. When you go into that link. You need to sign up for a free MathKicker account. And so when you go to that page it's going to say try math kicker. That's how you create your account. Once you create it, you will receive an email And it's going to have two links in it. And both of those links are going to say click here. And it's going to take you to two different options within MathKicker. The one link is going to allow you to do the first three things in our list. It allows you to convert PDF files to the DOCX files. And it recognizes math. And converts them to Equation Editor. So what's nice about this is you don't have to go in and hand enter those equations in Equation Editor. You can pull that document into MathKicker and it will produce those equations for you. So it's a way to simplify the process. Also, you can convert a PDF or image file to HTML. Or you could convert an image file. You can literally take a screen clipping of some math and text And it's going to create a Word document. With that and put those equations and expressions into equation editor If you click the second link. In your email, you'll be able to do the three the second, third, and fourth options there. So you'll be able to convert the PDF image file to HTML. Convert the image to a DOCX pie. File from the clipboard you can convert an image or PDF file to the math kicker editor. That is what is newer. Is the math kicker editor. So you just have different capabilities within those particular links that you are given. So we've given you a series here. Of four different videos for the tutorial for Bath Kicker. It's really nice to walk through those particulars. All right. Math editor comparison. All right. So when I'm looking at some of these different editors. We need to keep in mind that those common math pieces of software that math teachers use are often meth type or equation editor. And remember, we're talking about teacher to student here. So we want to use stuff that we want to use teachers use and so teachers use either math type or Microsoft Equation Editor. Allows us to send electron send documents electronically to a student who will open it on their computer with or without a Braille display attached and a screen reader will read those. Whether it be JAWS or NBDA or voiceover, we're allowed, we are able to read those equations. Also, using either Duxbury or Tiger Software Suite we can convert it to Nemeth or UEB. Microsoft Equation Editor can be used for brale blaster or to send documents electronically to a student who is able to open it on the Braille sense. Now remember, the Braille Note Touch Plus is working on this. But it's not quite out yet unless, of course, they announced it at CSUN, which I didn't attend, but I know they're working on it. So we may have another edit to do. So it's something that's coming. They know that Equation Editor is used a lot. So they are also working to streamline that. Okay, so we talked about Microsoft Word Equation Editor. For the student, the student can use it, but not just them. The teacher also can use it. And in fact, as a teacher, I liked using those shortcuts as well. It was a pain to go up to the pellet and find what I needed. Instead, I could just keep my hands on the keyboard and type what I needed to. So it allows me within Microsoft word to just press alt equals And then type in my math. For instance, I could use the shift six, which is the carrot to make an exponent. I can use shift in my minus sign or dash. And get an underscore to make a subscript. I can use a backslash and my SQRT to make a square root. So there's quick ways to do all of that. If a teacher is going to add graphics though. To a document for a student. We want to see them add that alt text. We want We want this from them whenever we can get it. Because they know how they want those pictures described. So the more we can involve the teacher in that process, the more likely we'll be using the terms the teacher is using. Or we could replace it with something like C-Tectographic and have a tectographic for it. We don't always want to just use audio descriptions as I believe Tina said earlier. If I was asking a student which of these pictures represents a half. I don't want to give away the answer by describing that picture. So that's where that tactile graphic could be important. As I mentioned, that equation editor is accessible with the Browset 6. We use a lot of them here in Iowa. And so our teachers can produce those documents email it to the student. The student opens it, they see it in Namath code, add their answers and they could shoot it back to the teacher. But that's going to be for those equations and expressions. I've given you that demo that's a short five minute demo of the equation editor and how to create it. But again, there's that new comprehensive list from the Daisy Consortium from those people that tell you exactly what to enter for whatever symbol you want. We mentioned the equalize editor. Just like the student can enter their Braille. Remember, the teacher can enter the print. So if I'm going from teacher to student. I can actually lay out the problems in print And then the student can be able to see those instantly in real time in Braille. I can also even send them an HTML file that they could use online. That I could just link to, or I could send them a BRF file. So if they're using the BrailleNote Touch Plus. They can access that BRF file on that device. Or with some sort of other refreshable braille display. There's a help menu And there's a learn how to use these two. There's different tutorials under that help menu. Students can use that Braille display attached to their computer to access it. And then we've given you that teacher hat video, student hat video, and of course the YouTube channel. With all of his great videos, he keeps adding. So if you want all of his up-to-date ones, that's the place to go. All right. Desmos. So one of the things from the teacher perspective is let's say I know I'm going to do certain graphs. I can actually, as a teacher, go to the Desmos website I can put whatever equations in there I want to graph. And if I'm doing it up at the board. During class. Prior to that, I could just send the student a link. Or I could have a document with those equations And then I could have a link in there of the graph that goes along with it. It's going to save the student some time. So all you have to do to do that is type control alt s or click the share icon, the share graph icon And it gives you a link to that particular equation already graphed. When you do that, you can copy it using ctrl c or click the copy button. And then just paste it in that document or email it to the student. Just another note too, tables. Is another nice feature of the Desmos graphing calculator because if I just have a set of points that I want to send to a student. I can just type the word table And a table instantly comes up on the screen. And then I could enter in the coordinates and I could share the link the same way that I would share a graph. So we want to thank all of you. Today for Letting us share what we're learning about our new workflows.