Express Activity 1: Setting Up and Getting to Know Your Monarch

Expanded Core Curriculum Mastering the Monarch
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Hi Nathanael

Thanks for sharing — I’m also excited to be part of this cohort and agree with everyone’s observation about the Monarch’s size. It definitely feels like a robust piece of equipment! The backpack suggestions were very welcome — especially for those of us who plan to carry it around regularly.

Like you, I’m really curious about how the Monarch handles layout-rich content like tables and slides. As someone focused on music education, I’m particularly eager to explore how the device might support representation of abstract musical concepts — such as rhythm grids, harmonic relationships, or formal structure — in ways that are both tactile and interactive. I imagine there’s a lot of potential for students to grasp ideas they previously had to rely on auditory or verbal explanations for.

Looking forward to hearing more about how your testing with PowerPoint and tactile graphics evolves. Thanks again for such a thoughtful post.

Pablo from New York

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Setting up the Monarch was very easy and I really appreciated the introductory tutorial. I did not watch any of the Hive videos at first, because I wanted to read the user manual and play around with the device myself. I figured this would be a good way for me to determine my priorities and see what I was truly excited about learning.

My first impression of the device is how large it is. I’m wondering if a future rendition of the case could include a way to attach a strap or handle, as well as a place to put a USB drive or a pair of headphones.

I am expecting the Monarch to make it easier for me to edit text and give presentations. I am also excited about the capabilities for viewing tactile graphics, and other information presented in alternative formats, such as charts and tables. I believe having access to this information will give me more confidence when doing my job in Marketing.

I was most excited about the tactile graphics viewer. Once I was connected to the Internet, that was the first thing I wanted to set up and use.

I have used other braille displays before and it was much easier to get going and learn while using the Monarch itself. With other devices, such as the NLS Ereader, I felt the need to read through the manual before using it . With the Monarch, I really enjoyed the tutorial because I could learn how to use the device while actually using the device.

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First Impressions: I found that setting up the Monarch was easier for me then other refreshable braille displays. I believe part of this is because I was able to see everything at once in terms of reading the braille (by sight) as opposed to having to change lines, and potentially forgetting what I read the line before (sometimes it takes me a minute to process what I read). It was also easier to enter my password for the wifi when I could see what I was brailling above my hands as opposed to having to move my hands to check what I wrote. The hardest part for me was setting up the language profile. I had the hardest time getting it to be in Grade 2 braille.

Your Expectations: I think the Monarch will be beneficial for my students build skills with fluency on refreshable braille display, but also give them the experience of being able to see the graphic in real time. This will be beneficial as they move towards their post-secondary plans.

Your Priorities: I really want to explore the tactile graphic functions first-especially since this will be the biggest game changer for my students. I want to be able to become more proficient at the Wing It app, so that the student can get access to the graphics drawn by teachers and peers in real time, but also share their ideas.

Optional: I have set up a couple other braille devices in the past, and I found the Monarch’s set up easier and more “user friendly” to set up. I was able to have it up and running, and ready to go fairly quickly.

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If I remember correctly, you can enable a mode that displays the braille visually on a monitor via an HDMI connection to the Monarch.

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All in all, my first impressions of the Monarch Rise are very positive. First, it was easy to set up and the startup tutorial was extremely helpful.

The User Guide was easy to read in braille, though not with speech. This should likely be changed, and I would suggVictor Reader. This would greatly assist those who may not be sufficiently speedy with braille but may want to read the User Guide with speech. All in all, though I have not yet completed all the modules, I found the User Guide to be more helpful. In the modules, the volume of the machine in the background is so low that, as a totally blind user, I cannot hear what the trainer is doing.

I was a little disappointed to find out how heavy the Monarch is. I was hoping to use it to read sermon notes weekly and to read rosters and announcements in my volunteer capacity as a public address anouncer for a local university. However, this does not seem at all feasible, especially since I have to climb forty steps to get into the press box at the local stadium.

I believe the use of the Monarch will aid the students I serve in increasing speed and efficiency in reading braille. I also believe the bactile graphhics will be most helpful to high school and college students taking algebra or some other type of higher math.

The only real negative I see with the Monarch is that the keyboard is below the display instead of above it. I am having real issues adjusting to this, as every other braille display I have used in the last 25 years has had the keyboard below the display. I'm not sure why the Monarch was designed in this way, but I think it will be an adjustment for many of our students who are accustomed to using the Focus, Brailliant, BrailleNote Plus, and other such units. In addition, this could cause strain for some students who may not be able to move arms and shoulders well.

I know that terminal mode is now available for the iPhone and other Apple products, and this is fantastic. I also know Freedom Scientific is working toward making this a reality with JAWS. All of my students use JAWS, and I think they would use the Monarch more as a terminal and display with a computer than as a standalone device.

All in all, my first impressions of the Monarch are very positive, and I look forward to continuing to use it and to training others how to do so as well.

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Hi Jason,
I also thought that the process of changing the time zone was interesting.
I got one of my students involved in figuring it out. She had to try a couple of times and finally got it. She had to change it to Central Time. She has used Braille displays before.
I am excited to have some of my students use the Monarch. I also had another student create a new document in the editor. He liked seeing more than one line of text that he wrote. I will look forward to showing him the JAWS split-screen feature in the future.

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My first impression other than being very excited about the tactile graphics capabilities is how big the Monarch actually and concern for ease of portability. However, for the Monarch to have multiline access it is needed. I did not have any surprises when setting up my own device for I had training on it last year through a TVI as well had already taken the HIVE class, although I have not had a student who has yet used it for functional task completion which I am looking forward to this year. I am expecting that the Monarch is going to be a game changer for tactile access especially for math and then utilizing the Monarch in the Software Engineering & Web Design program in preparation for CIE.

The features that I want to explore first as you may already know is tactile graphic access, utilizing the APH Tactile Image Library, making my own with Wing It as well as emailing tactile graphics for immediate access as needed.

I have worked with other refreshable Braille devices before and the Monarch is very user friendly in my opinion.

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I am late getting on board the Monarch Rise course. I started taking the course and unboxing and training with the Monarch less than a week ago.

Unboxing the Monarch was fairly smooth. The one thing I would have appreciated was if the Quick Start Guide had listed the connecters that came with the brick for charging the monarch. The U.S. connecter was not attached to the brick, and was in a separate place in the adapter box than the rest of the international connecters. It never occurred to me to feel along the side of the box to see it attached.

I thought the tutorial was very useful. I appreciated learning to navigate and the point and click gestures using a sort of immersion method.

I would have appreciated more tactile graphics in the tutorial of the keyboard layout, not just the front of the machine. I felt like I might have learned faswter being able to feel a tactile graphic instead of listening to the video about it. The video was well done, and I had no trouble following it. So this might be a far-off future consideration.

The videos about orientation, care and maintenance, etc. were well done. The replacing the membrane video seemed a bit nondescriptive to me, and I was left with a sense of dreading regarding membrane replacement.

Connecting to wifi, exploring the TGL, updating the Monarch, knowing what else was in the box besides the connecters for the adapter, learning to navigate and most of the keystrokes seemed pretty intuitive to me. Some of the keystrokes reminded me of my old Braille 'n Speak and Braillelite days. Then I wondered about creating a Bongo game with a multilien braille display. :slight_smile:

I work with college students. I think they would go through the tutorial, but most students are just concerned about getting their assignments done. Most of the students I talk to don’t even read the What’s New section when their screen reader is updated because they feel they don’t have time. I am concerned that a lot of college students would question if it would be worth their time to learn to use the Monarch, especially if it is supposed to be a supplemental aid to tactile graphics like what one of the videos seemed to imply. I think if a college student knew braille and loved STEM, it may not be a problem for them. However, we get a lot of recently blind individuals who may have learned braille just before coming to college. They are still figuring out how to live life without their vision and raise their family and do all the tings.

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I agree that the process for changing the time is not at all intuitive. I have used Braille displays for 25 years, and this is the most interesting process I have ever seen. I am wondering if we will all have to go through the same process when we switch time from 'Daylight Savings Time to Standard Time in early November. I did not see a Daylight Savings Time option in the settings.

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After hearing so much about the Monarch I was excited to get the hands-on experience and think about how it might be beneficial at work for myself and our program interns. I was surprised at the size and weight for sure.
I found the setup rather smooth and felt familiar to similar braille products I’ve used in the past. I found the beginer tutorial to be particularly good. Connecting to Wifi and installing the software update was also a smooth experience. THe overview modules in the course were brief and helpful and I’m looking forward to working more with the individual applications.

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I had similar thoughts. Seems like a good prompt to look at the discoverability and usability of such a common task.

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You are not alone in feeling behind Mary. I had preplanned travel then an ilness after returning. We seem to share some observations. I didn’t think to put it in my initial post, but the point and click functionality is one of my favorite features so far and that portion of the tutorial was particularly cool.

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i COMPLETELY AGREE WITH THIS POST. i WAS ALSO BORN TOTALLY BLIND AND STRUGGLED WITH UNDERSTANDING GRAPHICS THROUGHOUT MY EDUCATIONH. i AM GOOD WITH MATH, BUT STOPPED TAKING IT WHEN IT CAME TO ANALYTICAL GEOMETRY BECAUSE i KNEW i WOULD NEVER UNDERSTAND GRAPHICS TO THE EXTENT THAT WAS NECESSARY. i’M TEACHING ALGEBRA TO BLIND STUDENTS NOW AND WOULD ABSOLUTELY PARTICIPATE IN A COURSE THAT WOULD ASSIST WITH BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF GRAPHICS. wHAT A FANTASTIC IDEA!

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i LOVE THE IDEA OF A STRAP. aS A PASTOR, PUBLIC SPEAKER, AND PUBLIC ADDRESS ANNOUNCER, A STRAP WOULD BE MUCH MORE CONVENIENT TO ME THAN A BACKPACK, AS i AM USED TO TAKING BRAILLE DISPLAYS WITH ME USING A STRAP.

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I’m glad that I am not the only one late to the show, but that was my plan to enjoy my summer and then learn about and use the Monarch, right before school started so it would be fresh on my mind and I wouldn’t forget everything. I was pleased with how easy it was to set up and found the quick little videos great to follow along with. Setting up the Monarch was similar to setting up other refreshable braille displays. I am confident that my students will absolutely love this and be able to set everything up with little to no help from me or videos. They are so great about using knowledge of other devices and applying it to new ones to figure it out. Once we get into new things like tactile graphics, charts and graphs we may need a little more practice and guidance. These are the topics I am most excited to explore on the Monarch.

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Hi Danielle,

Welcome! I hope your summer was enjoyable. I agree, the Monarch is easy to set-up. I look forward to reading your future posts when you venture into tactile graphics with Monarch. Alicia Wolfe

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The Monarch was surprisingly easy to set up. The instructions were clear and took little time to complete.

Connected to WIFI, the Monarch will be a wonderful life skill tool for recipes, books, and notes.

I want to explore the Word feature first, then the Tactile Graphics Library.

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Well, first of all. I have been using a BrailleNote Touch from the beginning. The interface is really close to the Braillenote. I had no problems learning the commands, navigation and interacting with the apps as they are mostly the same as the other notetaker. I have not seen any of the app crashing issues as reported by a couple of other users.

Coming into the first training, I didn’t really have any expectations. I already knew the interface, and how to use the navigation methods.

Were I am surprised is how much I really enjoy being able to increase or decrease the amount of lines of braille displayed on the fly. This is kind of like adjusting the speech rate on the screen reader to me. If I have a document that I am struggling with, I can just give myself more space and it seems to help, as 10 lines of braille is a bit much for me at this point.

I really could see the braille display being great for coding, when support for Voiceover on the Mac is added. As it sits right at the moment, I don’t have a real big pressing need for it in my daily work schedule. Once school starts up in this part of the country I’ll be able to work with a couple of students that have one at the MT School for the Deaf and Blind (MSDB).

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I started using the Monarch almost as soon as I received it, and I immediately fell in love with the device. As someone who has read braille since I was very young, I loved the prospect of having access to a multi-line braille display, and being able to view tactile graphics on it as well was an absolute dream come true. After allowing the device to charge for a time, I got to work.

I had no issues at all setting up the device. I ran the tutorial the first time, and aside from a few small missing things that I read about later and found out from friends and colleagues, it gave me everything I needed to get going with the device. I was able to successfully navigate all of the applications, and took an entire afternoon to read the user guide in order to familiarize myself with shortcut keys that I believed that I would need the most. Having used Humanware and APH devices before, I was very happy to note that the Monarch had a lot of the same shortcut keys as say for example, a Chameleon 20 does, and that enabled me to learn it a lot faster than I normally would have.

I am most interested in exploring the capabilities of this device as a multi-line braille display. I do a lot of work with spreadsheets, and I believe that it will help me vastly increase my level of productivity when working with them. However, it is also a great tool for reading books, as well as editing documents, as I have come to find out. I do also love tactile viewer, and having access to the TGIL will enable me to look at tactile graphics that I have never seen before if for no other reason than to learn something as simple as a map of a specific region.

I think that this device will be useful in a lot of ways to individuals who I work with that may want to consider getting this device for the work place, or who are even in school. Especially if these individuals are doing any kind of engineering work, or in the case of my K-12 students, doing a lot of graphing work and advanced math.

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Setting up the Monarch didn’t seem too challenging having already worked with other refreshable devices and the fact that the APH Hive does an excellent job of explaining and showing you step by step. I do love that you can connect a monitor to it if you so choose.

One of the things I love most about the Monarch is how it lets you see multiple lines of braille at once, all in the same space and in real time. Whether you’re reading a financial graph or putting one together yourself, everything’s right there without having to spread it out over pages and pages. It saves so much space and cuts down the time it takes to work through the information, leaving you more time for other subjects, projects, or just getting things done without feeling rushed.

One of the features I couldn’t wait to try was the math graphics. While it’s great to have all math curriculum in braille, that’s not always the reality—and when it is, it often comes in multiple volumes stored in different places, making it impossible to carry around like a student’s peers or coworkers can with their materials. The Monarch’s screen is large enough to perform measurements and enter answers in the same space. Pretty cool.

I think what really sets it apart from other refreshable devices is the ability to see—and feel—more at once. One of the reasons I love embossed braille books is that you can have it all right under your fingertips and move as quickly or as slowly as you want, which helps build fluency. We simply don’t live in a paper world anymore, and the Monarch is bringing those same advantages into the digital space.

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