"Kathryn Webster" Archive

Innovative solution for WFU blind student leads to journal article

Michael Shuman and Robert Erhardt recently published an article in the Journal of Statistics Education, “Assistive Technologies for Second-Year Statistics Students who are Blind.” The article written by Shuman, interim director of Wake Forest’s Learning Assistance Center (LAC) and Erhardt, assistant professor of mathematics, focuses on the technology they developed to assist Kathryn Webster, an aspiring mathematician who also happens to be blind.

Michael Shuman, associate director of the Wake Forest Learning Assistance Center, poses in the Z. Smith Reynolds Library on Thursday, August 18, 2011.

Shuman

Kathryn, a junior from Greenwich, Conn., enrolled in a course in statistics covering topics requiring her to both interpret and produce three sets of materials: mathematical writing, computer programming, and visual displays of data. While some resources for blind students taking mathematics courses or introductory statistics courses were available, none were adequate to assist Kathryn.

New Wake Forest faculty members pose for headshots during their orientation on Wednesday, August 8, 2012.  Robert Erhardt, Mathematics.

Erhardt

In addition to providing academic support to all Wake Forest students through coaching and peer tutoring, the LAC exists to enable students with disabilities to experience equal access to the academic, social, and recreational activities and programs at the University.

Though Wake Forest is a smaller institution than other similar private schools, the University still has a number of undergraduates with disabilities who request accommodations. Though Kathryn brought some of her own assistive technology with her to campus, Shuman was struggling with a novel way of representing visual data for her related to her math courses.

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