On March 4, 1996, the following response to an Internet survey
on mathematics instruction for blind students was sent by
Professor Abraham Nemeth, addressing a personal perspective of
factors which were critical to his ultimate achievement and
success as a mathematician. I did not require any special
methods of instruction. I attended regular classes where I took
notes in braille supplemented by tape recordings of the
lectures. I developed the Nemeth Code when I found that the
other available codes in existence were inadequate as a tool for
doing mathematics. I used the braillewriter as the exclusive
device by which I performed mathematical calculations and
manipulated mathematics expressions. On a braillewriter, the
dots appear on the top side of the paper where they can be
immediately read. This allows for the rapid alternation between
reading and writing which is required when interacting with
mathematical expressions, and is the closest thing to the use of
a pencil and paper used by the sighted. To operat