Giving presentations using the Monarch

APH Products Monarch
1

I have recently given three presentations using the Monarch (two online via Zoom, and one in person).

I wrote the slides for the presentations in Markdown format, then converted them to HTML using Pandoc with the reveal.js option, thus producing HTML slides. In addition, I converted the slides to Microsoft Word format, copied the files to the Monarch, and read them with KeyWord whilst presenting. However, it was necessary for other people to display the HTML slides to my audiences, as I could not find a convenient approach to doing so on the Monarch itself.

I could have tried to use the Web browser on the Monarch to display the slides, but I’ve already encountered bugs (previously reported) in panning the display to read text-based documents.

I am unaware of any means of sending the HDMI output of the Monarch to a laptop/desktop system and from there, into an online meeting (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or whatever the hosting software may be).

I investigated the Preview mode (Enter with V) in KeyWord, which might have been useful in the in-person presentation. However, there were also participants who had joined via Zoom (raising the same problem as before) and the video display in the seminar room required a USB-C connection, whereas the Monarch offers HDMI video output. I assume there’s a suitable HDMI to USB-C adapter which can solve the latter problem. The Preview mode would have displayed the file as a continuous document rather than as individual slides, so it wouldn’t have been ideal in any case.

When screen readers offer reliable support for the Braille Terminal mode of the Monarch, I’ll be able to give presentations via Zoom, e.g., using a browser running on the host laptop. For in-person presentations, though, this would necessitate carrying both a laptop and the Monarch (unless the venue for the presentation already has a laptop or desktop machine equipped with a screen reader that supports the Monarch).

I welcome any additional information or suggested solutions that I haven’t considered.

2

I do presentations with PowerPoints all of the time. I found that having the outline of the PowerPoint slides on the Monarch was a good solution. I displayed the PowerPoint to the class, so that I could hit space bar to jump to the next slide, and I followed along with the Monarch. This worked out much better than using the single line Braille display, because I had the entire text of a slide on hand.

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I have used JAWS and Powerpoint with the Monarch and that too works pretty well, and lets me using Monarch’s terminal mode read a lot faster than if I was using a single-line display. And I then have control of changing slides. I did try the split Braille feature to read my speaker notes along with the slides, but it doesn’t work that well. 32 cells is just not enough for a good split Braille experience. Freedom Scientific is really promoting their Split Braille feature, but I find it only works well if you are monitoring a very small section of the screen.

But, I’ve also had a lot of success if I’m not using slides to present, such as in my volunteer work with ACB, when I use the Braille editor to contain my notes. I can share my screen on my computer to demonstrate what I’m discussing, while my notes are safely hidden from the audience on the Monarch in the Braille editor. That is working especially well for me, because I don’t have to look at my notes at all on the PC or rifle through pages of Braille trying to find my place.

Two feature requests that would make presenting with the Monarch even easier: first, the ability to turn off the perkins-style keyboard. The Brailliant has this feature and it is useful because only the panning buttons are active, and thus if you accidentally press a key while reading, nothing happens.

Second: I’d like a feature that lets you point to a line of braille and choose whether it will be in the top, middle or bottom of the display. This would make jumping around a document a lot faster.

Sighted people also have this feature, especially in programmers’ editors. They can press a key or click on an icon to move their current line to the top, middle or bottom of their screen. This does not affect the position of the cursor or the focus, just the position of the current line in relation to the screen.

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I think these are thoughtfully considered and appropriate feature suggestions. At least in terminal mode, the second feature (panning the display to move a specific line to the top, middle or bottom) would have to be implemented by each screen reader. In KeySoft, as you probably know, there’s already a command to move the line containing the cursor to the top of the display.

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Actually, Pandoc can convert documents to Microsoft PowerPoint format, so I could still write the slides in Markdown format and use PowerPoint to give the presentation. I could also convert them to an HTML slide set and use MOnarch in terminal mode with a browser to present.

Unfortunately, I encountered a braille panning bug with the browser installed on the MOnarch, so until this is resolved, it may not be feasible to use the MOnarch alone to present the slides.

Presenting via a Monarch and a laptop would be fine for online meetings and seminars. Carrying both a MOnarch and a laptop to an in-person venue would be somewhat inconvenient, but not entirely out of the question either.