Note-taker: enabling students who are legally blind to take notes in class

ABSTRACT

The act of note-taking is a key component of learning in secondary and post-secondary classrooms. Students who take notes retain information from classroom lectures better, even if they never refer to those notes afterward. However, students who are legally blind, and who wish to take notes in their classrooms are at a disadvantage. Simply equipping classrooms with lecture recording systems does not substitute for note taking, since it does not actively engage the student in note-taking during the lecture. In this paper we detail the problems encountered by one math and computer science student who is legally blind, and we present our proposed solution: the CUbiC Note-Taker, which is a highly portable device that requires no prior classroom setup, and does not require lecturers to adapt their presentations. We also present results from two case studies of the Note-Taker, totaling more than 200 hours of in-class use.

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.1 Computer Uses in Education
          Subjects: Computer-assisted instruction (CAI)

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.1 MODELS AND PRINCIPLES
      H.1.2 User/Machine Systems
          Subjects: Human information processing; Human factors

General Terms:
Design, Experimentation, Human Factors

Keywords:
assistive note-taking, automatic note-taking, blind, lecture, lecture notes, low-vision, meeting, note-taker, note-taking, notes, student