students who are blind and visually impaired can take the same STEM (Science,
Technology, Engineering, Math) courses as their sighted peers, using the same
standardized technology, through the addition of accessible features.
The manual for the Orion is a little over 20 pages and can be read in a single sitting. It
can be accessed online at APH Orion TI-84 Plus User's Guide or via the USB flash drive
33T
33T
that is included with the Orion TI-84 Plus. Additionally, APH has made the 400+ pages
of TI-84 documentation from Texas Instruments™ accessible and converted it to HTML.
Lastly, APH partnered with Learning Ally™ on recording the entire TI-84 manual, which
can be found online at the APH Orion TI-84 Plus Resources page; or if users have a
33T
33T
portable DAISY book reader with a USB port, they can insert the included USB flash
drive and listen instantly to the TI-84 manual.
The Resources page also has helpful videos and tutorials, and additional resources
33T
33T
from third party users who have already begun adding to the documentation. More
importantly, there are thousands of searchable online tutorials (many of them
accessible) for the original TI-84 that are just as relevant for the Orion TI-84 Plus. See
the Suggested Resources at the end of the article.
One example of a typical exercise that a student might perform on the Orion TI-84 Plus
is the graph of a sine wave, which is done by graphing sin(x) . Opening the link allows
33T
33T
you to hear how the Orion TI-84 makes a graph accessible. As the playback point
moves up and down on the Y-axis or right and left on the X-axis, the tone level adjusts
and moves from speaker to speaker, indicating where the point is on the coordinate
grid.
After a graph is created, it can be explored for more information. This example is a
33T
walkthrough of the graph by tone and speech, finding a certain Y value at a given X,
3 3T
and finding the max or min part of a graph by using tones and then quickly switching to
speech mode to get the values. When finished with an audible exploration, TI
Connect™ software, a PC, and a graphic embosser can be used to get a tactile printout,
