FSU Mathematics
Mathematical Thinking Course Section for Visually Impaired / Blind Students (MGF1130)
Welcome to the special section of the mgf1130 Math for Liberal Arts course for the visually impaired and blind students (VIBS). This version of the course has been completely redesigned for blind students who use braille and have a vision of 20/200 or worse. That said, since visual disabilities lie on a spectrum, this course is open to students with a wide range of visual disabilities.
Enrolling
Unlike the "regular" course versions, this version of mgf1130 is only open for enrollment through special procedures — either a course code or manual enrollment through consultation with me (the instructor, Dr. Kolarkar). If you are thinking about enrolling in this course, please message me, and I will try to advise and enroll you as smoothly as possible.
The first time this course was offered is the Spring of 2025.
About this course section
In this version of the course, we wil use tactiles, sensors, and audio everywhere for all the topics. Some topics are listed below. Every aspect of the course has been carefully designed to use best practices to help our VIBS succeed, and even enjoy the math learning experience. We are a team of talented, diverse, and dedicated educators and student helpers from all over FSU. Here are some of the newer design elements we have implemented currently, and through constant feedback, we will keep improving them over time.
What are the redesigned elements of this course section?
- Restructured Classroom Design and Layout for better movement, and individual and team activities.
- Screen readable and braille materials (including Nemeth Braille) throughout
- New tactiles including graph paper, wikki stix, braille stickers and dice, etc.
- Sensor-based mats
- Completely redesigned lessons, homework, and assessments, while maintaining the learning goals and outcomes.
- Improved accessibility in online portals and materials through working with vendors
- FSU's first blind Learning Assistant (LA). Check out our FSU LA Program.
- VIBS-accessible study spaces and help sessions in the Libraries
- Expertise, experience, and resources from the Visual Disabilities Program and the Office of Accessibility Services at FSU.
- Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles used throughout. More ideas are in the works. Have ideas? Send them to us!
- Focus on sense-making, contextualization, real-world problem solving, and developing a Learning Mindset.
Here are some of the topics covered in this version of the course
- Venn Diagrams. Surveys. Charts.
- Logic. Truth Tables.
- Argument validity. Analyzing premises. Forming conclusions.
- Counting and Probability.
- Statistical Charts, Percents and Percentiles.
- Distance. "Pythagorean" Theorem.
- Volume and Surface Area.