[R] help for lay person assisting R user with disability

[Courtney Bryant]

Hi Liz,
This is a particularly sticky case – the student is attempting to get a PhD but is currently in between programs until her current project (which we’re attempting to hire an assistant for, or better yet some up with a solution she can work on her own) is completed and “accepted” in some way.
I believe her main access issue is around mobility, she has little use of her hands.  I wasn’t sure if sight was as much of an issue, but from what I’ve learned here it seems that enlarging the text itself is easy enough.  I will double check with her about her computer – at the end of the day, if she is game, perhaps I could provide her with a mac.

Courtney Bryant, EOS Specialist
Equal Opportunity Services, Human Resources
Carnegie Mellon University
412-268-3930 | cbryant at andrew.cmu.edu<mailto:cbryant at andrew.cmu.edu>



From: Liz Hare [mailto:doggene at earthlink.net]
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2015 12:42 PM
To: John McKown
Cc: Courtney Bryant; r-help at R-project.org
Subject: Re: [R] help for lay person assisting R user with disability

Hi Courtney and John,

The RStudio environment mentioned below will not work with speech output (I tried with Window-Eyes awhile ago). Some of my clients use it but I have no experience with it. Since the student is partially sighted, they might be able to customize the environment with big fonts and contrast, I’m just not sure.

Using a screen reader like Window-Eyes, the student could use the R GUI environment, although it’s a little frustrating because it doesn’t speak a lot and you need to use the mouse keys a lot.

The other option if you have to stick with Windows  is to run R at the command prompt, which makes interaction slightly easier but you’d have to figure out how to log the output.

What is being recommended for the rest of the students in the class? Ideally, this student’s experience should be as close as possible to the others’.

Liz
On Jun 18, 2015, at 12:17 PM, John McKown <john.archie.mckown at gmail.com<mailto:john.archie.mckown at gmail.com>> wrote:

On Thu, Jun 18, 2015 at 9:32 AM, Courtney Bryant <cbryant at andrew.cmu.edu<mailto:cbryant at andrew.cmu.edu>>
wrote:


Good Morning,
I am currently working with a disabled R user who is a student here at
CMU.  The student has both sight and mobility issues.  The student has
asked for an assistant who is well versed in R to enter data for her, which
we are having a hard time finding.  I would like information from R
developers/users about how/how well R interfaces with Excel (an easier
skill set to find!)   In your opinion, could it be as easy as uploading
data from excel into R?

Also, do you know of a way to enlarge the R interface or otherwise assist
in making the program accessible to a low vision person?  My  limited
understanding leads me to believe that screen magnifiers like zoom text
don't work particularly well.  If you have information on that, I would
very much appreciate it.

Thanks for your help and for bearing with me!
Courtney

I am a bit confused (a normal condition for me). Is the student writing R
code or is the student running a application written in R? Also, since you
mentioned Excel, I am assuming that the student is using a PC running
Windows as opposed to Linux or a Mac.

If the student is writing R code, then I'd suggest that your computer
support person install Rstudio. It is cost free and can be downloaded here:
http://www.rstudio.com/ . The installer can then customize Rstudio to use a
really large font, if that would be helpful. Please forgive my lack of
knowledge about accessibility issues. If the student has trouble typing
(mobility issue?), this likely won't help. Would a speech to text / text to
speech interface help instead of a screen magnifier? I know next to nothing
about these tools, other than that they exist.

===

If the student is running an R application (which is what "enter data for
her" implies to me), then any accessibility issues would need to be
addressed in the application itself. But I don't understand why a "data
entry" assistant would need any skills in R itself in order to enter data
into it. But without knowing more, that's about all that I can say. One
thought: CMU has a college teaching "electrical and computer engineering".
Depending on what that means, perhaps someone from that college (professor,
TA, or grad student) could see what your student is doing and perhaps have
some insights on how to help. Or is there a "computer club" on campus where
some geeky student might be found? You might look here:
http://www.club.cc.cmu.edu/ If these are true geeks (and the web site
sounds promising), then a lure of beer & pizza would likely be irresistible
<grin>.

===

For interfacing R with Excel, you might want to look at RExcel here:
http://rcom.univie.ac.at/download.html#RExcel . It has a free student
version. But is this more for an Excel user who wants to use R for
analysis, not an R user wanting to use Excel for "data entry".



--
Yoda of Borg, we are. Futile, resistance is, yes. Assimilated, you will be.

My sister opened a computer store in Hawaii. She sells C shells down by the
seashore.
If someone tell you that nothing is impossible:
Ask him to dribble a football.

He's about as useful as a wax frying pan.

10 to the 12th power microphones = 1 Megaphone

Maranatha! <><
John McKown

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Liz Hare, PhD
Dog Genetics LLC
doggene at earthlink.net<mailto:doggene at earthlink.net>
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