I really appreciate that you went through and used this as thoroughly as you did! I could not agree with you more on all these points! And I never figured out the “search and plant trees” edit box and since that was the first hting I saw when opening the browser, I thought it somehow had to do with the page that was loaded. But I couldn’t figure out what page that was. Also, when I used the open address shortcut, it opened a different box, not the search and plant trees box so I had no idea they were the same thing.
Off topic here, but I remember the telesensory days! I was taken up to Petaluma to meet those who had migrated from telesensory to humanware when they first opened and I felt like a VIP getting a tour of the new Humanware offices as a high school freshman.
So far, I’ve been exploring KeyMail, Victor Reader connected to Bookshare, KeyWord, File Manager, Ecosia, and the chess tutorial. The summer has been busier than I expected so far, so I still haven’t made it to KeyMath… I was able to get my Gmail account connected surprisingly easily, especially since my student and I tried for weeks and weeks to get his set up and even with customer support, we couldn’t get it to work. I’ve got my fingers crossed that we’ll get it to work this fall. I noticed that my inbox in KeyMail seems to be the “All Mail” folder that’s on the website and my email app, so it was full of promotions and spam that’s normally filtered out. I’m going to keep playing with it to see if I can change the settings, but I welcome any tips! I was able to connect Bookshare to the Victor Reader, search for and download a book very smoothly, and the chess tutorial was very straightforward. I’m hoping to teach one of my kids how to play on the Monarch so I can have some experience teaching a sighted person who doesn’t know braille. I want my students to be able to play an accessible game besides braille Uno with their sighted peers. File Manager was also pretty straightforward and I think it’s one of those apps that gets overlooked but is actually pretty vital. It’s necessary to have files organized so you can easily locate what you’re looking for. I’d be lost without the folders on my laptop! I’ve opened Ecosia, but I haven’t done too much with it yet. I did notice that YouTube was the first suggested site, and while there is a search function, I can’t figure out any way to functionally use the site. I plan to do a lot more exploring of other websites. I have a little experience with KeyWord from my limited knowledge of the BrailleNote, so what I need to work on is memorizing the key commands so I can be more efficient. I know from my first student in the pilot program, that KeyWord and Victor Reader gave him much more independence with his school work, as did Ecosia (he has a lot more practice with that than I do!).
Thinking of employment, File Manager would be really important, and using it now in school is a good way to develop organizational skills. I think for many jobs, accessing magazine publications via Victor Reader could be useful, especially those in academic/research related fields. I think learning all the key commands and shortcuts can be a challenge but it’s needed for efficiency. I think a combination of having a cheat sheet and providing activities that require the use of the commands for practice is a good start. Flash cards for drilling would probably be effective with some of my older students, but for some of my younger ones, I think I’d use a game of memory, or an independent activity where they clothespin the key command to the corresponding function and then self-check their answers.
I have limited experience with the BrailleNote and some experience with JAWS on a laptop with a Focus 40. I find the Monarch to be more robust than the BrailleNote, but I’m not sure that it can completely replace an actual laptop. I’ve been having my student use both set ups and he has found that he prefers the Monarch for some tasks and the laptop for others.
I think you’re right, and I don’t expect the Monarch is meant to be a laptop replacement. Anyone who tries to do that is probably destined for disappointment, in my view. When the Braille terminal mode becomes available for the Monarch and supported screen readers later this year, you’ll be able to use the Monarch as a multi-line display with a laptop, opening up many more possibilities.
There are some circumstances in which the Monarch would be entirely adequate, however. I could imagine taking a Monarch and a phone to a meeting or conference. I tend to use technology sparingly at conferences - including technology conferences. Having access to e-mail, document reading capability, a Web browser, and simple text editing for note taking would be enough in those situations. It’s a little like taking a tablet computer - which is essentially what the Monarch is. It’s a kind of Android tablet with advanced Braille and tactile graphics capabilities.
The built-in Monarch applications are useful and they’re the right choice in some contexts, but they don’t compete with your word processor, advanced text editor, desktop operating system, and all the applications you’re used to elsewhere. On the other hand, people don’t use tablets for tasks that require a laptop or desktop system either, so this isn’t a criticism of the Monarch. It’s all about setting expectations and using the right tool for the appropriate task.
While we’re raising issues with the Web browser: I think support for FIDO 2 authentication and passkeys will become an issue sooner or later. Even the medical bill payment Web site that I needed to use last week prompted me to create a passkey, so support for them has moved beyond large corporate technology providers. Passwords are on the way out, and that’s good for security. Passkeys are the future of authentication.
The implication for the Monarch is that support for hardware security keys such as a Yubikey or Google Titan security key will become increasingly desirable, if it is not available already. I don’t have a security key with which to test whether they’re already supported at all. They aren’t mentioned in the documentation.
Thanks for this input! I’m still so new (relatively) to assistive technology so I often think that I’m missing things. It’s good to hear that I’m on the right track providing instruction in more than one device.
You make an excellent point about slideshows and spreadsheets. These would be particularly useful for high school/college students. Slideshows are used all the time, both for lectures and for assigned projects. I’m also wondering now about how well the Monarch would work for shared documents where multiple users can edit, such as Google Docs/Slides/Sheets or Microsoft 365. I need to try opening PDFs on the Monarch, but I’m sure you’re right in that a dedicated PDF reader would be beneficial. I’ve gotten feedback from my student that formatting in KeyWord is a challenge, and he had a difficult time trying to use MLA format for his papers. He ended up creating the document on the Monarch but then transferring it to his laptop so he could format it there.
Thank you Deborah and other braille reading professionals- your comments are so helpful to me as a TVI. I’m finding that my students’ needs in school are vastly different from what they’ll likely need in college and/or the workforce. I’ve had good luck with a lot of the apps I’ve explored, but I haven’t gone nearly as in depth as you have. I had a question for you, and anyone else that has input: how are you finding the braille input? My student brailles very fast and we’ve noticed that the display doesn’t keep up with him very well. It’s the same with his Focus 40 too. Does anyone know any way to improve the issue?
This is interesting to me because I also braille really fast and have not had that issue. Did you ensure your Monarch was updated?
Of course when I’m actually entering text I’m touching the keyboard, not the display so possibly it IS behind and I didn’t notice. But when I stop keying in information, I can read it on the display so I suppose that is all that matters.
I’ve honestly not had any issues entering Braille on the Monarch; it’s been such a pleasant experience that it’s a pain to go back to trying to enter Braille on other devices.
I’m wondering if the problem is that you visually watching the display are finding it lagging whereas this is not apparent to the student. Braille has to after all be translated to print when it’s showing on the display unless you’ve set it to show dots, and even in that case, the thing has a slow microprocessor.
I remember I was sharing my screen in a zoom meeting and our college network had slowed down so that though to me my typing was fine, people watching on zoom saw this delay and wondered what was going on. That delay was caused by the internet being slow, but could this delay be a result of you watching in real-time?
One approach to the document formatting issue would be to write it in Markdown on the Monarch, then transfer the file to a computer and run Pandoc to convert it to whatever final format is desired. Markdown is relatively simple and concise enough to be quite convenient to edit or review with a Braille device.
If Markdown isn’t sufficient, then one can move to LaTeX, or the new and emerging tool in this area, Typst.
Although you can create and edit Markdown, LaTeX or Typst files on the Monarch, as they’re simply text files, there is presently no specific support for markup-based editing.
Pandoc Markdown should be sufficient for a variety of documents, including secondary school and a lot of undergraduate work. However, for precise control over formatting, LaTeX is ideal and probably unsurpassed - it’s a professional, publication-quality typesetting system used for book and journal publishing, among other purposes. I started to use LaTeX toward the end of my undergraduate studies, then to format my Ph.D. thesis, and subsequently for other writing projects. It’s much easier if you’re using a text editor that supports it, however, to avoid syntax errors and to simplify entry of LaTeX commands.
I’ve been thinking more about the issues I discussed earlier. The problem is for speech and/or Braille users, bandwidth is limited. Sighted people both have the ability to simply click on something to see what it does without the need to memorize much about the interface, plus they see the geographic relationships between elements and have color, images and font sizes to clue them in to its importance or lack thereof.
For example, take a rich, but reasonably accessible PDF, save it as text and open that text. You’ve lost so much formatting, layout, color, and pagination. It’s a pain to visually read. Same thing with even a very accessible web page. If you saved it as text you would find it difficult to read visually.
But for us, sometimes saving something as text makes it easier to read, simply because we removed interface elements which only got in the way.
So in understanding that, it’s good to think about what can be done to an interface to make it as uncomplicated as possible.
For example, if the entire browser interface could hide under a menu button, and all we read was the web page with a title at the top and a URL at the bottom, that would vastly improve the browsing experience. Then if we did want to go to the address bar, open a new tab, see the Ecosia blog, access recommended web pages, etc. etc. we’d hit that “Go to Browser” menu and all this goodness would be available. But it would be hidden until we wanted to deal with it.
I have this problem on my computer all the time, especially working with web-based apps. The app may require I tab to various areas to activate them, but if I tab beyond it, I’m suddenly tangled up in the browser interface where I’m tabbing to items not related to the app I’m using. For example, if I tab too far now I’m going to encounter:
- My Address Bar.
- Favorites Bar
- View site information menu
- Applications bar
- Extensions
- Create new workspace
- Settings And More
- Co-pilot
- Add to favorites
This is all a lot of verbal and Braille clutter I could do without, all because I accidentally hit tab too many times! It breaks my concentration until I remember that most of the time, I can hit Control-F6 to get back to the web page, but not to where I intended to be focused. I put up with this because I need in my job to use the same apps that sighted people use, but I don’t have to like the extra cognitive load it requires.
Sighted people want to SEE all that stuff because maybe they do want to add a bookmark , use co-pilot, build a workspace, open a new tab. We do too, only we don’t want that interface interfering until we need it. Already with limited bandwidth, we must memorize keystrokes and deal with the extra inconvenience of a clunky interface when it is clunky!
Even this very editor, while I’m typing in it keeps adding extra asterisks. I have no idea why. Another sighted trying to be helpful thing which for me is just an annoyance! Had to go back, locate and remove them.
Other annoyances including the file manager adding empty folders for music and movies and other clutter to a USB flash drive when you move files, the requirement to “import” a book when you should simply be able to pull it up from the file manager, and the file manager’s maddening “no items” message when so much more could be displayed to give a folder path and information about the number of files (0 files in folder) or (10 files in folder.) are things to remove or add to the interface.
Our college requires students get a course ID from the schedule and enter it when enrolling in the course. Students either cannot find the ID or enter the wrong ID, leading to endless hassles for everyone. They should be able to click on the course ID and hit an enroll button, but instead a clunky registration system continues to persist, simply because code has not been written to make registration easy to use. I am fierce about this, that barriers to ease of use should always be front and center when designing an interface!
I do love the experience of both reading and writing on the device; haven’t used a Braille writer in weeks! But there are rough edges still in the interface for the built-in apps which need smoothing out.
Though terminal mode will give us greater access to applications, for those who want simplicity and easier access, having streamlined but informative interfaces on the built-in applications will make the Monarch more appealing to those who are young, those who are technology phobic and also those who need to rapidly get a task completed without extra hassles.
The app I have explored most extensively is KeyWord. I have enjoyed using this app to write and edit, particularly because both text to speech and multiline braille are present. I love being able to have a choice of how I read my document and how easy it is to make edits. I think using the point-and-click method is really fun and prefer it to other editing experiences where I have needed to use the keyboard to navigate.
Between the Monarch and my iPhone, I have essentially replaced my laptop. I think this device has a lot of promise and once it is easier to view files, particularly in Google Docs, I would definitely recommend that blind people use this device as their all-in-one device.
I think that users who are familiar with Microsoft Word and other word processing apps would not find this app hard to learn. One recommendation I would have is for a Health feature to be enabled so that a user could go to that portion of the context menu, click the help button, and be directed to that section of the user guide. I think that would make app usage very easy and seamless.
How useful do you find the context-sensitive help (Space with H)? I know it isn’t the same level of detail that a link to the relevant section of the User Guide would provide, but it would still be interesting to know whether you find the help feature valuable as it stands.
I have sometimes found it useful, but it’s generally a three-way research exercise between the context menu, the help text, and the User Guide. I read the appropriate section of the User Guide first if the application is unfamiliar, and tend to rely on the context menu or help text to look up details quickly while working.
Wow! I have to admit, pretty much everything you mentioned is brand new to me so your reply reads a little like a foreign language, but I’m excited to try it all out so I can teach my student how to use it. Thank you so much for the information and suggestions!
Over the past week, I’ve explored several applications on the Monarch, but the one that stood out most was the Word Processor. As someone working closely with young musicians and aspiring professionals, I was especially interested in how this tool could support students in composing, editing, and formatting longer pieces of text—whether it’s written assignments, music analysis, or rehearsal notes.
My Experience:
The Word Processor feels robust yet intuitive. It mirrors many standard functions of common programs like Word but within an accessible and streamlined interface. I was impressed by how easily students can navigate with context menus and shortcut keys, and the fact that documents can be saved in a range of formats (including .docx and BRF) adds a lot of flexibility. The ability to insert math using Enter with M is a bonus, even if I’m more likely to use that for musical rhythm patterns or time signature examples than algebra!
CIE Implications:
For students transitioning into competitive integrated employment (CIE), especially in creative or administrative fields, this application is a major asset. It promotes independence by letting them handle documentation tasks without constant support. It also fosters efficiency—they can revise, format, and share files without relying on sighted assistance. In the music world, the Word Processor could be used to draft program notes, create accessible rehearsal schedules, or format CVs and bios for auditions and grant submissions.
Challenges:
One potential hurdle is the learning curve with formatting commands. Although shortcut keys are available, remembering them all might be overwhelming at first. To address this, I would provide customized cheat sheets and guided practice sessions, encouraging students to build confidence through repetition. Another issue might be syncing work across devices or sharing with sighted peers. In those cases, I’d help students practice exporting to universal formats like .docx or .pdf and using embosser previews to double-check layout.
Final Thoughts:
Compared to other refreshable braille displays I’ve worked with (like the Polaris or BrailleNote Touch), the Monarch’s app suite feels more integrated and versatile. It’s clearly built for learning environments and beyond, making it a strong candidate for both students and professionals. I’d definitely recommend it as a primary tool for individuals preparing for or already working in CIE settings.
Thanks for sharing, Teisha — I really appreciated your detailed feedback. I had a similar experience with the Word Processor’s efficiency, especially the ability to switch between documents and take focused notes. Your point about the cursor lag is interesting — I noticed something like that during some point-and-click edits too, and your “shock it back to life” trick made me smile (and might just work!).
I also found the issue with tables and screenshots in Word docs a bit tricky, especially when working with music syllabi or graphic-heavy resources. Hopefully future updates improve that rendering. Great insight on the email and browser experience too — especially the gap between screen-reader output and visual content. Looking forward to hearing more of your impressions as you keep exploring!
Thanks for your insights, Ronit. I agree that a dedicated PDF reader would really elevate the experience, especially for professionals navigating complex or secured documents. I’ve run into similar thoughts when toggling between KeyBRF and KeyWord — having streamlined tools with flexible export options would simplify things quite a bit. Also, your point about PowerPoint support is a strong one, especially as slides are so central in both academic and workplace settings. Let’s hope these suggestions are on the developers’ radar!
I am having a lot of fun with the Monarch. I am especially loving the reading a multiline braille display to read books, news articles, magazines, and seeing tactile graphics!
I have set up my iCloud and Gmail accounts on the Monarch. I attempted to add my work email but was met with the “Unauthorized device” rule. This means any device North Carolina’s IT department doesn’t know about does not get access to email. Oh well, when JAWS and VoiceOver gets support for the Monarch, that’ll be my ticket.
I am really enjoying the ability to view graphics on web pages. For those that do not know, you can follow these steps:
- Press dots 1-2-4-5 for graphics
- Press backspace with O to open up the graphic.
The graphic opens up in the Tactile Viewer. Some graphics may not make sense, but just the idea of us being able to “see” them is phenomenal!
I have gotten to know the tactile viewer better. Also, transitioning to a totally different set of keystrokes is proving to be a good challenge. Space with H and space with M are very helpful in getting the keystrokes through my thick skull. I am enjoying making the images thicker and thinner to get more details on how to interpret the graphic.
Wing-It is installed on my devices, but I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet.
There is still a lot to go through as far as what this device can do. I am enjoying all the different ways folks are using this device.
I have mostly played around with the word processor and email. I was able to hook up my work email and it works pretty well. Initially the Monarch was giving me an error when I tried to open .DOCX files from email attachments. But that seemed to resolve after the latest update. I do find that handling work email on the Monarch is less smooth than doing so from my work laptop, because I can’t easily access all my work files stored in Google Drive on the Monarch (I don’t like the Web version of Google Drive and prefer accessing the files through file explorer from the Google Drive desktop app). I would love to see the Monarch gain support for a file sharing app like Google Drive, spreadsheet editing, and presentation editing. I can currently view my presentation notes but not the actual presentation I am giving, which means if I want to use the Monarch for presentations I have to have both the Monarch and my laptop on the document which is a big pain. I think terminal mode should solve this once it becomes compatible with JAWS since I am a JAWS user. I’d especially want to use the terminal mode with a bluetooth connection so I don’t have to physically attach the Monarch to my laptop. Anyway, I will probably rejoin Bookshare in a month or two and then I look forward to trying out the book reader. I miss reading multiline braille books! My other suggestion is to add email commands to the user guide, as I don’t think they are currently included (probably since email is such a new app).
In writing my follow-up activity, a resource guide for both students and teachers for Bookshare on the Monarch, I ran in to a few things about the way bookshare is supported that I like and that I dislike.
First the good stuff: I’m grateful it supports reading lists and assigned books. Many of the other apps do not. Teachers (or paraprofessionals like me) can ssign books to students who have student accounts which are not individual memberships. That is, if you have a student account, you cannot download your own books; they must be “assigned” to you. People are encouraged to get individual memberships for full priveleges, but many do not either due to being little children or adults with learning disabilities who struggle with filling out online forms. It is also difficult for folks with limited technology skills to become individual members so having a student account where a teacher assigns all their books is easier.
So it’s great Monarch supports that.
It’s also wonderful that reading lists are supported. I set up reading lists when several students are taking a class with the same books, so I can just assign the list to multiple users. I also create many personal reading lists on my personal account, for example “Science Fiction” “Learning Python” and “Romances that are not stupid” are three of my reading lists. Many other apps that make reading easy with bookshare do not support reading lists.
Now, what I don’t like. When the Monarch displays lists of books, there’s no way to change the sort order. The order for My history is logical; it lists books in descending order from the date most recently downloaded to the earliest date. But when you browse a category, the sort order is oldest to newest. It should be newest to oldest, because for many subjects, a user would rather read a book copyright 2025 than one copyright 1975!
The sort order for the other lists of books that the app displays is somewhat unclear, but I checked the dates of the books on the website and made an educated guess when I wrote my resource guide. Actually there are two dates; the publication date, and the date the book was added to the bookshare collection. The Monarch does display both of these, making it fairly clear that the sort is oldest to newest.
Of course a sophisticated user could search on the website and add a book to a reading list. But a less sophisticated user, dependent on the Monarch, might find it frustrating when they can only find books added to the collection three decades ago!
My other issue is that the lists are short, many only ten items so you have to keep pressing Next. Because you can scroll the display, why not have at least one hundred items on each list if that many items are available. Particularly when browsing a category, that may have a thousand items, seeing them ten at a time is kind of silly.
It is likely that when you scroll the display there’s a problem with the actual focus moving accurately to the current screen, so that may be why the lists are so short. I’ve seen this happen in other places, where when you press space and backspace, your focus is till on a previous display until it syncs up with your most recent press of the Braille pan down or Braille pan up keys.
I noticed that Chord G sometimes has speech read an entire screen in a book’s display and sometimes not. Seems kind of inconsistent.
I also have an issue with the reading experience for any book. If you do chord-H for help, you get the exact same help screen you see in KeyBrf, but you are in Victor Reader. That help screen should simply show all the keyboard shortcuts contained in the Victor Reader section of Appendix A of the User guide.
In my resource guide, I did not mention that you can change the format from Epub to Daisy. Epub is the default, and it is actually the format that bookshare receives publisher quality files in. In general formatting in Epub is superior to Daisy so that’s whhy I didn’t mention it.
I also wish Braille reflow would be automatically implemented with an NLS bRF is imported. Both the iOS and Android versions of BARD mobile and the NLS eReader do a great job with Braille reflow.
I really, really like having multi-line Braille though.
So far I’ve focused on the word processsor, tactile image viewer and the built-in user guide. I think students would find the device easy to learn with the available resources. The applications and commands seem intuitive, and quite similar to other such braille devices I’ve learned in the past. The monarch could make for an excellent primary device if it weren’t for the size and weight.