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.