Hello to all of my new fellow butterflies! I’m wondering if we can talk a little bit about the current costs associated with providing textbooks and other accessible instructional materials to blind students throughout the course of their education journeys. Obviously, the Monarch is proving to be the kind of tool which will provide us with resources to which we don’t have current access at all, but I’m thinking in financial terms in preparation for conversations with political figures who might be able to help with funding. It seems to me that, over time, it’s more than likely that the cost of a $20,000 Monarch would probably be cheaper than the cost of providing traditional instructional materials over time. Do you folks think there’s a good way to quantify that so that we’re better informed when we make those phone calls and walk into our elected officials’ offices?
I was completely on the same page as you. $20,000 sounds astronomical, the price of a low end car. However, on our bookshelf right now, we have a World History book with a price tag of $3,000, Geometry $12,940, and Algebra $9,240. So with three books, we will have exceeded the price of the Monarch by $5,000. So if the Ebraille gets going soon, we will be able to significantly reduce the cost of textbooks. Now the question I have is someone is still going to have to mark up the charts and graphs, so who is going to do that?
Just to add to this discussion…I spoke to some of the APH staff about approaching medical assistance and insurance providers to try to get the Monarch and other vision AT funded by insurance. I have done this before…it is not easy and is rare but can happen. If an AAC device can be fully funded, there is no reason that AT devices for individuals with visual impairments can’t be. Just my thoughts. Thanks
Tim Knight
Agreed. I think it would be very beneficial to provide these monetary number comparisons to legislatures. I feel like the Monarch is certainly comparable to one year’s value in the braille books a student needs–especially once you hit upper elementary–high school. I know as a TVI, I had made many textbooks because we could not get them–higher level math and science. The cost was astronomical and by the time the book would have been received, the school year would be over. This would certainly cut on cost; but significantly save on time for the initial ordering to the hardcopy receival.
Great idea. Perhaps gathering data for what it would cost to provide the textbooks at each grade level, for the span of the student’s educational career through 12 grade and possibly even beyond to include post-secondary training. That number would certainly be much higher than the cost of the Monarch based on today’s AEM costs. Thanks Tim
Hi all, this is a very interesting discussion point for me, as a state instructional resource center director.
There is absolutely a case for the cumulative costs of purchasing braille books (up to roughly $3000 per copy) for individual students across an entire state will far exceed the cost of a Monarch (and certainly so across their academic careers), even if it settles in at a $20,000 cost per unit.
However a follow up factor on the other side is how many Monarchs end up in a state and what that cost could end up being. To this end, hopefully there will be mechanisms established to perhaps subsidize the cost of the Monarch.
Lastly, what we also do not know yet is what the cost of producing ebraille files will settle in at vs traditional costs of newly transcribing a book. The work of producing high quality braille files (aka transcription) won’t be going away, so ultimately do we see $30,000 new transcription costs go down significantly? Will $1500 per physical copy books end up being… $500? $1000?
All great points. As a former AT director, the cost of the Monarch will alarm LEAs and other administrators in schools. I encouraged APH to consider contacting large insurance companies in each state to determine how the Monarch could be purchased under insurance just like funding for AAC devices. I believe it is a viable option and should be considered. Insurance companies purchase AAC devices for students with a variety of communication needs and vision AT should be no different especially when it comes to a device like the Monarch. It’s impact on a child becoming educated and able to be successful in life with employment.
Hi there! I just shared the Monarch with my summer class here at Pitt during their weekend workshop and got the same question: Will families be able to get a device using their insurance. One of my students works as a private specialized school and mentioned that some of the children in her class who use expensive AAC devices use insurance so they can have a system for home, and wondered if the Monarch might eventually fit into that category.
The other question that came up: if a student is using the Monarch for textbook access, will schools/districts allow students to take the device home? How is that being handled so far by folks?
Hello,
Going through the insurance companies would be the most logical approach. That seems like it would be a long process to accomplish though.I can see from all of your posts so far that braille textbooks run from $3000-$20000 per book. Is there an average or estimate on how much would be save per book on average if the student was to get the book as a braille file for the Monarch? My other question, that I think is maybe even more important, how quickly can the textbook get to the student in the braille file format compared to a hard copy? I just want to also mention how much physical effort this would improve for the student too. When I was in elementary school I didn’t need the braille books, but i needed the large print format. These were three large volumes for every textbook I had. It made it a pain to transfer them around. It is no little thing to be able to have one device that would allow somebody to read the braille and feel the tactile images in one device instead of so many volumes of books.
Okay, I found something on APH site that talks about this. It seems like they are thinking that the Monarch and its capabilities will save 2-3 months of time producing the text books on average and $5000-$8000 of savings on average. So, there is some actual figures for you to talk about with your representatives. The link to the article is: