Calculators

Subjects:

  1. Talking Calculators
  2. Business Calculators
  3. Screen Readers for Calculators

Related Topics:

[Blindmath Gems Home]

No attempt was made to verify the correctness or accuracy of email addresses, websites, claims or statements of fact made by any contributor to Blindmath Gems.

1. Subject: Talking Calculators

Melanie Peskoe mpeskoe@insightbb.com
Mon Mar 2 2009
Can anyone give me a good suggestion for a business calculator?  I'll be starting an MBA program in May and I need to have one by then.  I cannot access the standard calculator, but do not know of a large print or talking calculator with all of the business functions. Thanks in advance.

Responses:

Jason White Jason@jasonjgw.net
Mon Mar 2 2009
There appear to be a lot of finance-related packages for the R statistics tool. This software has been discussed on the mailing list before, so perhaps other contributors will be in a position to  give advice, in greater detail, about whether this might suit your needs.

Louis Maher ljmaher@swbell.net
Mon Mar 2, 2009
The calculator on the windows machine is very useful.

Jonathan Godfrey a.j.godfrey@massey.ac.nz
Tue Mar 3, 2009
While I am a huge R fan, I would not recommend it as a substitute for a financial calculator.
If you needed to use a PC to do the calculations for you then I would stick to using EXCEL. You may need to learn how to do goal seek if the full set of functions is not yet implemented though.
If a PC is not an option, then you might be back to the old way of using tables and formulae - the option all students took when I did my first degree in Finance.
Most finance calculators have few statistical functions beyond correlation, regression (very simple), and the more common means and standard deviations. The specialist finance functions can save a lot of time though and I haven't checked EXCEL in this regard for a few years.
I would have thought that the course staff would be able to develop alternatives with you.

Roopakshi Pathania r_akshi_tgk@yahoo.com
Mon Mar 9 2009
Melanie,
I'm pasting here information about a talking business calculator. This is from the blindscience.org site. I had contemplated buying it, but eventually didn't need to. I don't think that it would be necessary for you either.

Talking Business Calculator
This is a fully functional business calculator with speech output. Each key is announced when pressed. The visual display calculations and results can be spoken with a press of a button. In addition to the usual arithmetical functions, this calculator offers items such as: repetitive addition/ subtraction, chain multiplication/division, constant multiplication/division, and much more.
Organization: Electronic Technical Services, Inc. (ETS)
Cost: $358.66
Ordering Information: Order Number: Canon TBC-1; Phone: 505-888-3923, 866-700-3923; Fax: 505-888-3926; Mail: Electronic Technical Services, Inc., 211 Conchas SE, Albuquerque, NM 87123.

back to top

2. Subject: Business Calculator

Melanie Peskoe mpeskoe@insightbb.com
Mon Mar 2 2009
Can anyone give me a good suggestion for a business calculator? I'll be starting an MBA program in May and I need to have one by then. I cannot access the standard calculator, but do not know of a large print or talking calculator with all of the business functions.  Thanks in advance. Melanie

Responses:

Louis Maher ljmaher@swbell.net
Mon Mar 2 2009
The calculator on the windows machine is very useful.

Jason White Jason@jasonjgw.net
Mon Mar 2 2009
There appear to be a lot of finance-related packages for the R statistics tool. This software has been discussed on the mailing list before, so perhaps other contributors will be in a position to give advice, in greater detail, about whether this might suit your needs.

Jonathan Godfrey a.j.godfrey@massey.ac.nz
Tue Mar 3 2009
While I am a huge R fan, I would not recommend it as a substitute for a financial calculator.
If you needed to use a PC to do the calculations for you then I would stick to using EXCEL. You may need to learn how to do goal seek if the full set of functions is not yet implemented though.
If a PC is not an option, then you might be back to the old way of using tables and formulae - the option all students took when I did my first degree in Finance.
Most finance calculators have few statistical functions beyond correlation, regression (very simple), and the more common means and standard deviations. The specialist finance functions can save a lot of time though and I haven't checked EXCEL in this regard for a few years.
I would have thought that the course staff would be able to develop alternatives with you.

Roopakshi Pathania r_akshi_tgk@yahoo.com
Mon Mar 9 2009
Melanie,
I'm pasting here information about a talking business calculator. This is from the www.blindscience.org site. I had contemplated buying it, but eventually didn't need to.
I don't think that it would be necessary for you either.
Talking Business Calculator
This is a fully functional business calculator with speech output. Each key is announced when pressed. The visual display calculations and results can be spoken with a press of a button. In addition to the usual arithmetical functions, this calculator offers items such as: repetitive addition/ subtraction, chain multiplication/division, constant multiplication/division, and much more.
Organization: Electronic Technical Services, Inc. (ETS)
Cost: $358.66
Ordering Information: Order Number: Canon TBC-1; Phone: 505-888-3923, 866-700-3923; Fax: 505-888-3926; Mail: Electronic Technical Services, Inc., 211 Conchas SE, Albuquerque, NM 87123.

back to top

3. Subject: Screen reader for Calculators?

Sarah Jevnikar sarah.jevnikar@utoronto.ca
Sat Sep 12  2009
Hi all,
Next July, I intend to write several Society of Actuaries professional exams. These exams require pre-approved Texas Instrument calculators which I've listed below. Is there anything like a screen reader for calculators? I called Texas Instrument today and they have nothing except a scientific one which talks but it is not approved. If not a screen reader, is there an accessible financial calculator anywhere?
List of approved calculators:

  • BA-35
  • TI-30Xa
  • BA II Plus*
  • TI-30XIIS*
  • BA II Plus Professional Edition*
  • TI-30XIIB*
  • TI-30XS MultiView*
  • TI-30XB MultiView

Responses:

Alastair Irving alastair.irving@sjc.ox.ac.uk
Sat Sep 12 2009
I doubt that any normal calculator would have a sufficiently powerful operating system to be able to write a screen reader for it.
Have you approached the society to se if they will approve something else?  I think it would be unreasonable for them not too, especially considering the amount of time they have between now and June to check anything.

Sarah Jevnikar sarah.jevnikar@utoronto.ca
Sat Sep 12 2009
Hi,
I have, and they're okay with me using a non-approved calculator, but there is a question of whether anything I do find that is accessible has all or most of the necessary features. I'm in the process of figuring that out.

Roopakshi Pathania r_akshi_tgk@yahoo.com
Mon Sep 14 2009
Perhaps this might help you.
http://www.blindscience.org/finance-and-statistics
It is called Talking Business Calculator and is in the hardware section. I was looking for a financial calculator for myself, but this particular calculator doesn't seem to have a website, and the functionality listed here is limited in my estimation. Also, if you are going to use a writer for your exams, can't you dictate the formula to her, she enters the same in any calculator, and reads the result back to you?
Slightly deviating from your question, I am curious if you have spoken to other Actuarial professionals? I remember a few Companies coming to my campus to hire future Actuaries. The concept is that if you have graduated in a quantitative subject, a company will hire you to work for them, and you are expected to simultaneously study for the exams. One of my friend is now also studying this course and from what I have been told, they have to use a software to produce graphs and run calculations. I don't think that they use any standard statistical applications. I am interested to know if you have any idea how would you deal with working for a company?

back to top