[conspire] math for blind

[Ivan Sergio Borgonovo]

On 03/18/2017 02:35 AM, Paul Zander wrote:
> I was hoping for a constructive discussion about instruction for people
> with special needs.

> When I tried to think about math for the blind, I kept using words like
> "see" and "visualize".  Obviously my thinking was totally wrong.

> A little web browsing gave a lot of suggestions for grade school math
> concepts using physical objects for counting, grouping, etc.  Some of
> these would also be great for people who have sight but don't understand
> math.  There was also an account of someone getting on a stool to feel
> how the two walls and a ceiling make a 3D corner. Apparently there are
> adaptations for Braille that supports mathematical equations.

There are many objects in math whose representation in 3D doesn't make 
sense or is plainly misleading or wrong.

The problem is that most of the times being blind means you miss the 
cameras but you've the same GPU. And GPU plays a much important role in 
seeing than the cameras unless you're an amoeba.

Possibly blind people can repurpose part of the unused GPU to other 
tasks but most probably they have the same approach to space.
So I wouldn't look for some exotic approach to teach math to blind 
people. The fastest path for many would probably be "visualize" till it 
makes sense.

And even after this stage I don't think they can take advantage of any 
superpower ;)

What's fun is that visualizing start to be impossible or worse 
misleading pretty quickly.
So probably once you bootstrap young blind mathematicians their ROI will 
be pretty the same of non blind mathematicians.

-- 
Ivan Sergio Borgonovo
http://www.webthatworks.it http://www.borgonovo.net