By the time most visually impaired students reach college, their math skills are well below expectations for incoming freshmen. Art Karshmer, formerly of USF-Lakeland and currently with the University of San Francisco, spearheaded an effort to teach math skills to visually impaired students. The MathGenie is a computer program with the goal of providing a personal math reader to blind students trying to learn math at levels K-12.

Work generated by a teacher for sighted students is automatically converted by the MathGenie for use by the blind student. Replication of the MathGenie requires only software loaded on a standard Windows operating system.

USF-Lakeland has created a lab that will accomplish the following:

• Teach visually-impaired college students how to use the MathGenie equation browser
• Prepare university teaching faculty to use the MathGenie in their classrooms and labs
• Train K-12 teachers from the Polk County public school system to utilize the MathGenie in their classrooms

The Alliance evaluation team will develop an evaluation to determine if such a tool is useful to college students and the ease with which teachers are able to integrate the use of the MathGenie into mainstream classrooms.

See USF student testimonial concerning MathGenie at the American Foundation for the Blind Web