Please help my deaf mother-in-law learn Algebra.

May 2, 2005 5:23 PM

Please help my deaf mother-in-law learn Algebra.

My fiance's parents were both born deaf. Both of them struggled with school systems that treated them as if they were mentally disabled and incapable of learning anything more than rudimentary skills. Her father was able to escape this once he left grade school, but her mother was treated especially poorly and was forced out of High School before she had a chance to graduate. She was left with the poor literacy that is common among the deaf community, but also lacked formal training in higher mathematics.

This has all come to a head now that she's trying to obtain a GED in order to attend Gallaudet University. She has to learn Algebra, Geometry & Calculus to pass. I've sat down with her on a few occasions to tutor her, but that won't help in the long run as we live in different states and I'm not sure I'm proficient enough that I'd feel comfortable tutoring her for such an important test.

Here's where you (hopefully) come in: Can you recommend any computer programs that could help her learn these skills? They obviously should not rely on audio, or at least be subtitled. The more visual the better.

Slight complication: She's also going blind. She has no peripheral vision but can see straight on so long as the screen is magnified. I'm sure a kid-friendly math program would be easier for her to deal with than one that relies heavily on small text.

Thanks!

posted by unsupervised to education (5 comments total)

As far as I know the GED doesn't include Calculus, FYI.
posted by abcde at 10:42 AM on May 3, 2005

I cannot offer any advice from experience, however I searched on Amazon and came up with a few possibilities. Mind Power Math offers "written and aural explanations" but, of course, I have no idea of the size of the font. Algebrator, aside from the unbelievably cheesy name, looks as though it also provides "all necessary explanations." Here are the complete results.

This site has a Basic Algebra Shape-Up. If you click on "Screen Shots" you can see examples. The print looks fairly small though.

You might want to contact someone from ANN. Perhaps they can suggest a better computer program or additional resources.

Finally, something like this could help no matter which program you choose. I'm sorry I can't be more informative. Good luck.
posted by crapulent at 10:57 AM on May 3, 2005

This site lists some good places to look. MathDork has a very, very small (at least on my browser) website, but the tutorials are full-size, and a CD of them costs $29.95, which doesn't sound too bad. The one lesson I looked at there looked pretty good.

If she should find that the screen text is too small for her, btw, Windows allows you to activate large fonts for text on your screen, and there are also physical screen magnifiers available.
posted by cerebus19 at 10:59 AM on May 3, 2005

The Hellen Keller Center would probably have some good leads. This is a list of listservs related to hearing loss: poke around there and post on a few of the appropriate ones. That community is very good at adapting alternate sources, so a program that isn't technically marketed towards the deaf and/or blind might appear there. There's one on EduDeaf, which would likely be able to point you in the right direction. Here's a page on math resources for the visually impaired; I don't know how they'd be for the deaf as well, so you'd have to check that out. There's a review on this page for a large print algebra teaching resource, which might be useful. This has a whole list of products for low vision students, but again, you'll have to weed out those that use sound/voice to teach. Here are products for deaf and blind people, but I didn't see educational stuff on there. Good luck, I know someone at Gallaudet and you're a good person for trying to help her get there.
posted by fionab at 11:07 AM on May 3, 2005

You may want to see if there is a college or community college in the area that teaches ASL (assuming she knows that; you haven't said I don't think). They may provide tutoring services as an internship thing. (My wife used to be an ASL interpreter before she got carpal tunnel.)
posted by Doohickie at 2:00 PM on May 3, 2005