Category: Cram Session
An abacus is an ancient device Made in China, I think, that was used to make mathematical calculations. I don't have much experience being blind so I'm still quite unaware of what kind of mathematical technology is available out there.
I used to use an abacus when I was sighted and now that I'm blind I want to know if there is anything in the blind student's school box that would resemble the function of an abacus. I don't like using calculators because they do all the counting for the human brain.
If anyone can help please do so.
I think the Abacus is still made. Last I knew it was available from the American Printing House for the blind at www.aph.org. Assuming that all Chinese abaci are the same with two beeds above the bar representing five and the individual beeds below the bar representing one (each bead), this is different, in that, there is only one beed above the bar, and four below. There are some systems that use little cubes with braille on them to represent the numbers, however, I never learned to use them. When I was a child, we used devices called numberaids, and calculaids. The numberaid had a resemblance to the Chinese abacus. The calculade had, I believe, five columns of wheels that one turned to the desired number, and the far left column of wheels had the various operation signs. Sorry about the history lesson of blind people and math instruction since the 1960's or so.
Lou
Yeah, I was just going to mention that you could probably still use the regular abacus since it is a pretty tactile tool anyway. And yes, APH sells them and so does The Braille Superstore. I'm thinking of getting one myself, as I want to relearn how to use one and it would just give me something else to do when I'm bored. *smile* By the way, the information about the history of blindie math tools was interesting to read. I wonder if they still have that calculade thing available anywhere, as that sounds pretty neat and would be interesting to have also. *smile*
Sorry, my information is a little old.
I think the abacus can still be purchased from the American Printing House for the Blind. There is also a wonderful training manual called something like "learning the Cranmer abacus" by Tim Cranmer, the designer of the current abacus.
This abacus differs from the regular chinese abacus in that there is one bead above a bar to represent the fives position, and four beads below the bar to represent the units digits one to four. Therefore, if you want to represent the number nine in any given column, you would push the fives bead down toward the bar, and push all four beads below the bar up toward the bar.
This abacus is devised so that the beads cannot be moved as easily as the traditional Chinese abacus, making it easy to examine tactually without moving the beads.
The book I mentioned is easy to learn, and very straightforward.
The result is that a blind person has a way to do calculations easily on the fly (the abacus is small enough to fit into a big purse but not a pocket (is there discrimination there?) Because of the need to prevent the beads from being moved inadvertinently, prevents this device from having the speed associated with the traditional Chinese device.
Interesting topic, thanks for bringing it up.
Bob
There's another book out there by a lady named Davidow. She was a math teacher at Overbrook School for the Blind in Pennsylvania. I never saw Tim Cranmer's book, but I bet its a good one.
Tinkerbell, the math aids I was talking about were around in the early 60's and invented by a Dr. Schot. I remember when I was in first grade he came to our school. He had a whole series of math books to go with the devices, too. I'm thinking that these were also APH Products.
Lou
Hey! Thanks for the feedback you guys.
I've looked into the availability of the books mentioned in your replies and found a good sound recording by Dr. Mae E Davidow entitled The Abicus Made Easy. There were others but I think i'll play it safe and walk in your counsel since you recommended it.
Now all I have to do is find a good abacus and get my studying going. It's gonna take some getting used to though because I haven't used one in years.
Thanks again.
Oh yes, I have briefly looked through "abacus made easy". It looks like a good training book. It's a little more modern than the Cranmer book.
Bob
I did a quick google search on "cranmer abacus" and found quite a few sites selling it.
Bob
I was never good at using the abicus, but I have to admit that it is very helpful especially if your calculator runs out of power or something.
Oh, the good old abacus! Yeah, my blindness skills instructor taught me how to do math on one of those APH abaci. This was before there were any talking calculators made at all, and the few that were made late in the Seventies were very expensive. I know I used to have one of the small ones, but I may have lost it or gotten rid of it. It had the beads as others described, and instead of the back being open like a traditional Chinese abacus, there was a kind of foam rubber underneath the beads and a solid plastic back on the abacus. This made it so when you moved the beads, they stayed put until you needed to move them again or to clear the abacus.
I know I have one of these around this room somewhere. I'll have to dig it out again and sign up for the Hadley School's Abacus 1 course. Yes, they have one of those. If you want an entire listing of their courses, go to www.hadley.edu
And, then, there's the braille slide-rule. I've seen one, but never gotten the knack of using it. I did learn the Cranmore abacus, however. I've heard of the Calculaid and something called the Cubarithm.