scientific and graphing calculators

Can you find scientific and graphing calculators that are suitable for blind students?

Calculators can be extensively used at every educational level. Calculators are able to perform statistics or maths calculations as well as manipulating matrices and plot functions on graphs are primarily valuable for studying advanced math. Even though the majority of scientific calculators and graphing tools aren't accessible to anyone who isn't capable of using adequate vision. But, there are alternatives that allow students handicapped to use these tools successfully.

There are numerous talking technological calculatorsare available although no single calculator will work at all educational levels. So, an evaluation of all features that are needed by the student is required to make sure the appropriate calculator is chosen. Susan Osterhaus at the Texas School for the Blind has made a list that can be performed by a variety of science calculators that can aid in the decision-making process. Orion the TI-30XS Talking Scientific Calculator Orion TI-30XS MultiView Talking Scientific Calculator is a very well-known a talkative scientific calculator that may meet the needs of a broad range of students.

Another alternative is to get an electronic notetaker mobile with advanced math functions. Certain notetakers feature speech synthesis and Braille that is re-usable and is able to be used by blind students to do logarithmic and trigonometric calculation. Make sure to check with the manufacturer in order to determine whether they have included the scientific calculator function is built-in to the.

There is also software which allows for speech access to a scientific calculator application. Some of these mimic the interface of a standard calculator and some even provide an audio interface to graphs. This program, called"the Audio Graphing Calculator (AGC) is an example of a user-friendly Windows-based program that features interactive graphing calculator capable of displaying graphs visually and also through the use of a sonified graph.

For more information about accessibility and access scientific and graphing calculators see the guide Accessible Calculators from the GeorgiaTech Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access (CATEA).

For more details about math accessible to all, check out our Knowledge Base articles What are the best methods to create Braille math material? What is the reason why accessible math is important?