Change Makers: A Podcast from APH
Change Makers: A Podcast from APH
Making Math Accessible & Monarch 1.4 Updates
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On this episode of Change Makers enjoy an episode filled with innovation, insight, and practical tools to support learning and accessibility. Enjoy a close look at an exciting new release from APH Press... a book designed to make math more accessible, engaging, and achievable for all learners.
After that, we’ll shift our focus to technology with our monthly Tech Takeaway. This segment keeps you up to date on the latest tools and features designed to enhance your experience. This month, we’re diving into the Monarch 1.4 update, highlighting new features, improvements, and practical tips to help you get the most out of the platform.
At the end of the episode, hear about the recent Braille Challenge. Hear from a few participants before the challenge began.
On this episode (In Order of Appearance)
- Zach VandeZande, APH Press Managing Editor
- Jennifer Wenzel, APH Technology Product Specialist
- Michael Dennis, APH Technology Products Specialist
- Braille Challenge participants
Additional Links
Welcome to Change Makers, a podcast from APH. We're talking to people from around the world who are creating positive change in the lives of people who are blind or have low vision. Here's your host.
Sara Brown:Hello, and welcome to Change Makers. I'm APH's public relations manager, Sara Brown, and today we're taking a closer look at an exciting new release from APH Press. This book is designed to make math more accessible, engaging, and achievable for all learners. We'll explore the inspiration behind the book, the impact it aims to make in the classrooms, and how it supports educators and students in building confidence and competence when it comes to math. After that, we'll shift our focus to technology with our monthly tech takeaway. This segment keeps you up to date on the latest tools and features designed to enhance your experience with the Monarch. This month, we're diving into the Monarch 1.4 update. Learn some of the new features and improvements and tips to get the most out of that device. We're also going to take a trip to the Kentucky Regional Braille Challenge. Up first, I have APH's managing editor, Zach VandeZande, here. He's here to talk about a new book titled Accessible Mathematics Education for Students with Visual Impairment. Hello, Zach, and welcome to Change Makers.
Zach VandeZande:Hi, good to be here. Okay, so my first question I always love to ask is do you mind to introduce yourself to our listeners and let them know what it is that you do at APH? Yeah, so my name is Zach VandeZande. I'm the managing editor of APH Press. Uh APH Press makes educational text for uh prep programs, so for future TVIs, uh orientation mobility specialists, etc. Um, I, as the managing editor, uh serve as the uh not as the subject matter expert on these books, but as the person who, you know, makes sure that the that the writing is what we want it to be in every chapter, that everybody sounds the same if there are many different chapter authors in a book and manages all of the logistical hurdles of publishing a book, which are many. Um so yeah, that's that's what fills my time.
Sara Brown:Speaking of a new book, talk about this new book that's coming out.
Zach VandeZande:So, our new book is Accessible Mathematics Education for Students with Visual Impairments. Uh, it's edited by Derek W. Smith, uh, and there are a lot of uh brilliant chapter authors involved. Um the purpose of this book is the second in our APH Press STEM series, uh, and it really is a book designed to help TVIs and math instructors and the families of people who are blind or have low vision really understand the adaptations. You know, uh we don't like to use the word challenges, but some do exist, as with all math, um, that that people face when they're approaching this stuff, particularly for the first time, right? Um, you know, um TVIs, uh, if they are like me, uh, are nervous about math. And math instructors are sometimes nervous about making sure that they're doing a great job of teaching kids who are blind or have low vision. And so this book is designed to help bridge that gap.
Sara Brown:So talk about some of the key principles for teaching numbers and operations to students who are blind or low vision, as described in the book.
Zach VandeZande:Yeah. So uh for listeners who don't know quite what that means, when we talk about numbers and operations, we're talking about the basic stuff. We're talking about counting, we're talking about grouping things together, we're talking about one-to-one correspondence, and then we get into adding and subtracting, multiplication, division, et cetera. One of the things that I really like about this book uh is that it it puts a real de-emphasis on what we sometimes call telling mathematics, where uh the teacher says, this is the way to do it, so do it that way every time. Um obviously, when you're working with somebody who is blind or has low vision, they're gonna have to adapt things to their own methods anyway. And so this book sort of builds that in right at the beginning. It also applies to students who who have sight. So uh making sure that they're giving them an understanding of the relationships between numbers instead of just telling them that this is how you do this, right? The relationship between numbers is discoverable, it's manipulatable, and it can be worked out in ways that really put their mind to work, right? So I'll give you a quick example. Uh, if you've got a subtraction problem, 357 minus 239, there's plenty of ways you can do it, right? The traditional way, uh, the way that people my age were taught in school is you subtract each digit and you borrow from the tens place for the ones place and go on and on and on. And it's sort of a vertical arrangement. Um, but there's lots of different strategies that students can use to do that pretty basic subtraction problem, right? Maybe they want to use a number line, uh uh maybe with braille labels on it to hop their way from the one number to the next and understand how it is, uh, you know, what the answer is. Um maybe they want to use vertical addition. So that's when you start adding your way up to uh commonalities within the numbers. So if I'm taking uh 357 minus 239, I might add 11 to 239 first to get to 250 and then add 100 and then add seven. And all of a sudden I've got my answer. And I did it with addition, which I, as you know, this this hypothetical very young person feel more comfortable with. And I figured out how to do it, right? Um, and so by making sure that everybody, not just students who are blind or low vision, uh, but every student has a bunch of different tools that they can apply and understands that these things are are related to each other, you're moving from telling them how to do it to letting them grasp it on their own. And that's something that I think is really cool uh about this book uh and about that strategy.
Sara Brown:That's so interesting. I I am very far removed from um my primary education. And so to hear, you know, in the Stone Age, I was taught you stack them and then you do borrow and you carry and all of that. So to hear the other ways to do and solve that problem. Yeah, this old, this old fossilized mind is just like, whoa, that's always so interesting. You need to hear.
Zach VandeZande:Uh and and you know, what I think is really what what was really instructive for me as somebody who has a creative writing degree, right? And and um has not touched math unless I needed to in a very long time, is you see a lot of adults my age, people in their 40s, not to give it away, complaining about the way math is taught now. But if you stop and look at this, you see that, like, oh, this is harder for kids in the moment, but it builds something for them going forward, right? So if you're using a five frame or a 10 frame, and and you know, when I was in elementary school, I'm like, what? I never saw that. Uh you're you're learning a lot about the relationships between numbers that is going to be really valuable for you every time you see a math problem, not just when you're solving that one math problem.
Sara Brown:Now, how does the text explain the progression from concrete to abstract understanding in an accessible mathematics instruction?
Zach VandeZande:Right. So moving from concrete uh to abstract, that's how all math is taught, right? So that's that's one of the the places where not a lot has to change, right? In your kindergarten garden class, you're given apples, they're put on your desk, and you're saying, How many apples do you have? Right. And then you give the one to your neighbor. How many apples does that neighbor that person have now? Um, and then, you know, uh it's typically we start teaching with real objects, right? Um maybe it'll be something like linking cubes or or um uh fraction circles, uh jumping ahead a little bit. Um for students who are blind or low vision, that's even more important, right? Making sure that they have that that concrete baseline understanding and then moving into the fact that these abstract things that we're doing when we're doing math problems are genuinely representation of the real world, right? Um like even when we're moving to the abstract, it's still applying to the rules of life around you, right? Um so uh a good the good news is a lot of the times the same math manipulatives that help a student who is blind or low vision do better help everybody do better. Um so for example, if I'm talking about the relationship between whole things and parts of things, so basic fractions, right? Just getting right into fractions. Uh and if I give a kid a hexagon, uh a tile of a hexagon, and then I also give them other shapes with fewer sides. So a rhombus, a trapezoid, a triangle. I looked them up beforehand to make sure I was referring to the right ones. Um, and I can ask them how many ways you can use these other shapes to make a hexagon, right? Um, that is them playing with the concrete things and engaging in play, and they're probably having fun doing it. And they'll realize as they're doing it that oh, six triangles can be put together to make a hexagon. Two three rhombuses, two trapezoids or some combination. And all of a sudden, these students now know one sixth of a hexagon is a triangle, right? Now they haven't gotten into fractions yet, but they understand that, right? And you can say, well, how many was it? Okay, what do each of these represent? And then from there, you can move on to that's what a fraction is. A student gets that so much better, and then is also getting you know early level geometry stuff as well, uh, there in their primary school classroom, just like uh moving, taking these concrete things and then being like, okay, that's what a fraction is. Let's look at a fraction and now let's do it just on paper or just just in braille. Um, so yeah.
Sara Brown:These really do set you up for the next step and make learning fun, make learning engaging. So yeah, you're learning in the moment, and you're going to retain that knowledge for the future.
Zach VandeZande:Absolutely. Uh and that's you know, that's what we hope.
Sara Brown:That's what you get. That's what that's obviously what we want. But it's just so interesting as an adult. And I think back to my childhood. And though I am cited, you know, I loved the workbooks. And again, I was one of those students. I loved all the workbooks. I love learning like that. I loved learning through play. I didn't think it was, you know, I didn't think about the I'm learning while I'm playing this. I'm like, I'm having a good time playing with this. And then I think back, somebody thought somebody sat down and thought, how do we make this engaging for kids? Yeah. And that's what that's what you're doing. So in what ways does the book address accessibility challenges in teaching algebra to students who are blind or low vision?
Zach VandeZande:Okay, so this is where the rubber meets the road for a lot of students, right? Algebra is kind of emotionally fraught for many of them, right? Because it's the first time that unknowns are being introduced and the first time that there is, you know, an X or a Y or a variable. Uh, and so they start to feel often like they're not sure of the answer in the same way they were before, right? So it's a challenge for everybody, not just students who are blind or low vision when they start encountering this. Um it's the first quote unquote hard math, uh, although that's not true. Everybody, everybody uh finds it starts to get trickier in other places. Um, but one of the problems with algebra is it's often represented visually or with a spatial arrangement, right? So a kid who is using Nemeth or UEB math science uh is gonna have trouble if the only thing the math teacher knows to explain binomials is FOIL, first, outer, inner, last, right? Because those are spatial questions that somebody who is reading in braille may not be able to just inherently know, right? And so one thing is just being a little bit more careful, right? As you are talking about talking about stuff. Um I'll give you another example. Um, the book has a section on spoken mathematics and being very rigorous in the way you speak your mathematics, because if somebody can't see the board, then if you say the square root of four minus three, they don't know what you said, right? Because they don't know where that square root ends. They don't know if it's just over the four or if it's over the four minus three. Um so they're in a bind. They're gonna get the answer wrong and not because it's of something that they did wrong, right? Um, so being really rigorous and saying open square root four, close root minus three, now we're cooking. Now they get it. Now everybody in the room gets it, right? It's it's adaptations like that. And it's really comes down to taking a thoughtful, uh, a thoughtful approach to the fact that the way you have been teaching as a math teacher or the way as a TBI you need to approach math, right? It's coming from both sides. Um, really taking a thoughtful approach of what information is missing in the way I usually do this, and how do I make sure they get that information? Uh, the book has a lot of very specific examples that are honestly uh sometimes above my head. I have to stop and slow down. So creative writing major. Um, but um, but it's full of examples of like, here's how you are inadvertently creating a challenge that is very easy to solve. It's just a matter of changing your practice a little bit or changing the way you are presenting the material a little bit.
Sara Brown:Wow, that's interesting. So it's just some simple ways of saying things, simple, simple changes like that can make a big difference for a person.
Zach VandeZande:Right. Yeah. And also, you know, think about I know, I know you don't want to think about a matrix, right? Nobody does, but a matrix is inherently spatially arranged, right? And so a person who is blind or or has low vision, they they need an they need it to be laid out very precisely in braille to represent that spatial arrangement, right? Um and maybe that one sticks in my craw a little bit just because of the amount of time I had to do when typesetting the book, getting the braille lined up and making sure the braille was all correct in both Nemeth and UEB Math Science Code. Um, but yeah, there it's it's things like that, right? And it's small changes in the way you're presenting the the material that makes it equitable for everybody.
Sara Brown:Wow, that's so cool. Such interesting stuff. Talk about why are tactile graphics emphasized as essential tools for teaching geometry concepts. Yeah.
Zach VandeZande:Well, unlike algebra, right? Geometry, the visual, the usually visually represented stuff is the content, right? It's not it's not helping to explain, it's the content itself, right? Uh and so that's when that's one of the places where tactile graphics become super, super important. Uh, they also often have to be more precise than a usual tactile graphic has to be, right? Because if we were talking about the length of lines, you can't fudge it, right? You have to get the lines, the line lengths correct. Um and you really can't explain a concept like adjacency and opposite or something, something like um, you know, um how an object relates to other objects without really letting somebody experience that object, right? That two-dimensional shape, that that three-dimensional object, whatever it is. Um so tactile graphics and manipulatives are a huge part of this. Um, but it and it and it requires some on-the-fly work on the part of the TVI uh or or the math instructor. Uh, Sean Takun, who wrote our chapter on geometry, he he provided us a great example uh where he the problem was finding the area of a shape, and the shape looks sort of like a two-dimensional Darth Vader helmet, right? Um and so you've got measurements along the bottom edge and along the edge of the semicircle along the top, and you have to find the area of the whole thing. Well, a student who's blind or visually impaired is gonna have trouble engaging with that. Uh, you can make them a tactile graphic, but what Sean did to help them understand it was he created a cardboard cutout of that that could be folded into or remove or the shapes could be removed to break it down into simpler shapes. So all of a sudden, Darth Vader becomes a semicircle, a rectangle, and two triangles. And now you know how to do that area calculation, right? Um, and so it's just a matter of knowing that he's gonna have to explain this to his kids and creating something with braille labels out of cardboard and just getting a little creative. And now these kids are like understanding it in a hurry, uh, you know, at speed. Uh so yeah, stuff like that. You have to be, you know, you just gotta be flexible and you gotta be a little prepared, uh, and you gotta be willing to um get creative.
Sara Brown:Wow. Now, how do the authors recommend adapting K through 12 mathematics curricula to ensure conceptual understanding rather than just straight memorization?
Zach VandeZande:Yeah, you know, this this is telling mathematics again, right? It's the idea of getting away from there's one way to do it, uh, and and getting into the idea of like there is an underlying concept of this. Um it's a key consideration throughout the book, it's sort of woven into each chapter, uh, making sure that your student's mind is flexible and not rigid, right, when it comes to math. Um, because it, you know, that's what makes the next concept easier, or that's what makes them take the math home. Um, um, and I think that that's one of the things, just to give a small example of this, uh, you know, the idea of thinking about uh uh applying uh measurement. There's a chapter on measurement, right? Uh not only showing them uh all the different uh assistive technologies that can help them measure things, right? Uh uh and showing them, you know, how to do the measurement, but also showing them why they would measure things. Um I think that that's really the key. It's it's a very simple example, right? But the key to giving a kid a good education is make making sure that they understand that this is their real life, not the classroom space, right? Um uh and not in a, you know, you'll need to do this when you're doing your taxes as an adult. But like, isn't it cool that you can do this to figure out how to build a bookshelf with your dad? Right. Um uh, you know, things like that, not just, you know, one day you'll need this and you'll regret it when you weren't paying attention.
Sara Brown:Now talk about what strategies are presented for making statistics and probability accessible to these students who are blind or low vision.
Zach VandeZande:Um, Sara, you know, this is the one where I'm kind of like, I'm a little in the weeds too. Like I can I can hang till we get to that chapter, um, and then I get a little on the weeds myself. Um, but here's the deal, right, with statistics and probability as I understand it. So please, if there are any math folks listening and I'm saying stupid things, that's fine. Um what's hardest about statistics, right, is that it's almost always represented by some kind of chart, right? You got a histogram, you got a box chart, you got a scatter plot, you've got you've got something that is allowing people who are cited to really quickly understand the whole picture, right? And the happy news is there are lots of strategies to create those on the fly for kids, right? Uh, you know, um you can do it very, very, very simply with with um, gosh, now I can't think of the name of the tool, like a tactile doodle. But there are lots of ways you can do it, right? Um, and so once you're able to get them a tactile graphic that really shows them like this is what data is being represented here, then they can start to play ball the same way everybody else can. Now, when it comes to understanding statistics and probability, they're gonna run into the same challenges as any other middle schooler or high school. It's tough, right? It's really hard to understand that if you flip a coin 99 times and it comes up heads, the hundredth time is still a 50% chance, right? Um but the nice thing is that there's not there there aren't as many barriers as you might expect uh when it comes to that that subject matter.
Sara Brown:What role do the TVIs play in supporting general education math instruction according to the text?
Zach VandeZande:Okay, so I don't want to get uh put my thumb on the scale too heavy here because I'm not the expert. I've never been in the classroom with a TVI, I've never been in the classroom with a math instructor. What the book really uh uh uh you know articulates well is the idea of collaboration, right? Um there's a whole chapter in the book on the collaboration process and how it applies in the math classroom, right? But you've think about it, you've got two people, and then there are other team members as well doing this work, but you've got the TVI who may be super unfamiliar with math, and you've got a math teacher who may be super unfamiliar with teaching somebody who is who is blind or has low vision, and they're both in a place of anxiety because of that. They might be. Uh, you know, some people can be chill. I can't be chill. Um and really arriving at a place where you know you understand that we share the same goals, that we aren't quite sure of our where our roles land sometimes, too, right? How much how much space the TVI should take up in the in this lesson, how much space the math instructor should take up in this lesson, that's a negotiation as well. And under and working through it in a way that is about collaborating in the in the shared goal of helping that student learn, uh, with with putting your ego aside a little bit and knowing that you both have things the other person doesn't know, um, I think is really valuable, right? So if a TBI is coming at this book, they're gonna they're hopefully gonna come away with it, feeling a lot more comfortable talking the talk of math and making those adaptations. If a math instructor is coming to this book, they're gonna feel a lot more comfortable about what's going to what they're gonna need to bring to the table in order to help help their students succeed.
unknown:Wow.
Sara Brown:Okay, so it's a partnership. It's a true partnership.
Zach VandeZande:That's always a partnership.
Sara Brown:Now, how do the contributors of this book address assessment and evaluation of mathematical understanding for these students?
Zach VandeZande:Yeah. So it's it is something that is woven sort of throughout each chapter, right? Each chapter is talking about like what does success criteria mean sort of subject by subject. Um, but one thing that's important, right, whenever you're adapting mathematical content is you got to be really clear uh about what is being evaluated, right? What's being assessed. Because if you're making adaptations, uh you want to be very sure that you're not making adaptations that keeps the thing that's being assessed from being assessed, right? So if if the common core standard you're trying to nail is learning how to read graphs, you can't give them the information in another way that is not a tactile graphic of them of the graph, right? That's that's a very simple example, but they it gets much murky. As you go. But you gotta make sure that you are not that you're creating, you know, equitable opportunities for assessment, not ones where the student who is blind or low vision or has low vision is the the content mastery is being skirted or avoided because it's it's hard. So yeah.
Sara Brown:So in what ways does the book prepare educators to collaborate with families and other professionals to support math learning across all grades?
Zach VandeZande:Yeah. Well, you know, the the chapter on collaboration is is about the whole team, right? The whole IEP team, which includes families, right? Uh and thinking thinking about the ways uh that they work together as well, and the students also, uh of course. Um a few of the things that it hits really uh uh that I think are really important here person-centered planning, right? So planning that is based on relationships and based on understanding the people and not just assuming the roles that they're going to play without talking to them about it first. Uh universal design for learning is a really great way to make sure that you are creating uh you know clear plans that make make sense to everybody on the team, including the family member. Basically helping everybody understand their sense of shared purpose and their sense of ownership and doing it in a way that creates that shared goal, creates that true collaboration by building the relationship uh and and making sure that everybody understands their place on the team.
Sara Brown:And my final question that I always like to ask is there anything else you would like to share AKB about this book, future books, or anything with APH Press?
Zach VandeZande:Yeah, um, well, I'm stoked about this book. Uh I can say stoked, right? Uh but I'm also I'm also stoked about a couple other books we have coming out later this year, right? Um this this one is is out of my hands and is gonna be in the world in just a couple weeks. Uh but later this year we have a new edition of Early Focus coming out uh that I'm really excited about. Um uh The Field has been eager to have an updated edition of this book. It's it's a book that looks at uh early childhood, so ages of zero of zero to five, uh, and and um and what the experience of being blind and low vision or low vision is is for those kids uh and how to properly you know uh support them. Um hopefully that'll be out in time for AER. I think it's gonna happen. Um and then we're also hard at work updating two of our other books, uh including there's more books than that, but the two the two that we'll uh be coming up after that are Foundations of Low Vision is getting a third edition. Um, and then Skills for Success is getting another edition. Uh so those are books that uh you know we've been we've been eager to update for a long time. We've got the right people in place to be the content uh content experts, uh, and they're doing great work. Um uh and they're exciting and enormous undertakings. Um, so uh it's gonna be really exciting uh when those are shaping up and we're getting them uh to our readers uh because I know they're gonna be valuable resources just like this one.
Sara Brown:All right, Zach, thank you so much. Love chatting with you today. I appreciate it. You too. Thanks so much. Yes, thank you. You can find a link to the accessible mathematics education for students with visual impairments in the show notes. Now let's shift gears and jump into our tech takeaway. Here's Jennifer Wenzel and Michael Dennis.
Michael Dennis:Hello everyone and welcome to our second episode of the year with our Ttech Takeaways. My name is Michael Dennis.
Jennifer Wenzel:And my name is Jennifer Wenzel, and we're so glad that you've joined us for this second episode of Tech Takeaways, where we're going to talk about new features of the Monarch because the update 1.4 just released. So we want to tell you all about some exciting new features. And the first exciting feature we want to tell you about is KeyDrive. KeyDrive actually gives cloud integration with Monarch. And Michael will tell you more about KeyDrive.
Michael Dennis:Absolutely. As Jennifer was already mentioning, uh, one of the very big questions we always got when we went out with the Monarch was can I access my Google Drive? Can I access my OneDrive? Can I access any drive in my cloud space? And the answer, sadly, was always no. But we took it as one of our improvements for the Monarch and have just launched a new app called KeyDrive. And through KeyDrive, you have the ability to directly log into your OneDrive or your Google Drive. So if there's uh anybody thinking about Dropbox, that is not integrated in there, but it is the two ones Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive. You can just go into the Key Updater app, which you will be able to find under all applications on your Monarch. Um, and just navigate to Key Drive, and then you can select which one you also want to log into. So you can um basically log into an account um and then you choose between your Google Drive or your OneDrive, and then the Monarch will automatically lead you to the usual login page of Microsoft or um of Google through Ecosia. And then you just go through your normal login process with your credentials. Um maybe one advice from us who work with the monarch all the time. Uh the monarch can be sometimes a little uh finicky or um Jennifer, do you have maybe a better word than finicky? But you know, for complicated, maybe a little diva with passwords sometimes. So we recommend actually to connect the usual uh keyboard through Bluetooth or even through USB to the Monarch, that you can just type in your password that way instead of using the braille keyboard. And then you're already set up. If you have two-factor authentication, you obviously need to go also through that. Um, but it is very simple to log in. You need to make sure that you're connected to the Wi-Fi. Um if you have any troubles on that one. One of our first episodes was about troubleshooting regarding Wi-Fi, so go back and feel free to tune into that one. Um and you can just use it on your monarch. Very helpful, especially in classroom settings, so that teachers can just um put the usual assignments into the drive. The student can access it from the classroom from home. And one thing for those who are working in education, um you will potentially have to talk to your local administrator for your school to allow actually that the monarch also gets access. Um, you will need your IP address and MAC address, and you can just find that in the settings settings, and then at the point about tablet, and you will find all those information in there. So you actually have also the ability to use that in the school setting. And next to Key Drive, we have some uh something else, uh not directly on the monarch, but related to the monarch. And that is actually about eBraille and an eBraille converter. And what that is and how that helps you is something Jennifer will tell you.
Jennifer Wenzel:That's right. But I first wanted to just mention that with KeyDrive, um, once you are logged into your Key Drive, you can find KeyDrive either in the Key Drive app, you can find your your your drive information and and your documents and files, or you can find it in File Manager. And when you are using Keyword or well, actually when you're using Keyword and you're saving documents, you are able to save them then in one of your drives. It shows up if you use space D to go to the drives list, it now shows up as one of your choices, your Google Drive or your Microsoft drive. So that key drive can be very, very helpful and a great place to save work so teachers can get at it without using a USB thumb drive or without even emailing it. And of course, students can get assignments that way as well, like Michael mentioned. So ebrail is a new file format that is being created. APH has worked with many groups, including Bookshare, the Daisy Consortium, um, lots of other groups in other countries, and I cannot begin to name them all and don't want to really try because I will miss someone.
Michael Dennis:But it's been a And the other thing is we only have 15 minutes. Exactly.
Jennifer Wenzel:We only have 15 minutes. But it's a huge collaborative project that um Willow Free has been very active in, and along with others from APH. But what eBraille will do is it will allow access to graphics and and text in a file, like a textbook. So if you're reading and suddenly there is a figure, you're able to open that figure quickly by just pointing and clicking or navigating to it and selecting it, and then it will show up as a tactile graphic, and then you can go back and be back to your text. And eBrail support is part of this 1.4 update for the Monarch. And also APH has just released the eBraille, the I'm sorry, the BRF to eBraille converter. So that means that files that have already been made in BRF, like a textbook file, can be converted to eBraille through this free converter tool. And as it's used more and more people will get more familiar with this. And also ebrail will be part of one of these saving options in Duxberry and possibly other transcription software too, but the one I know about is Duxberry. And so this type will become more and more common for students using textbooks, for other people using materials that have text and graphics. This format is based on EPUB, and it will be a great file format, allowing a lot more access for materials for students and others. So we hope that you'll be able to use, begin using eBrille and seeing its value. There is an eBrail file, the Treasure Island file that is part of the samples on Monarch, and you can import that file from Victor Reader. You can go to Victor Reader, go to import books, navigate to your samples, and find that treasure island and import it, and then it will show up in your My Books list. And that file has a graphic of a treasure map. So you'll be able to experience what that's going to be like when you are using it more and more with textbooks. So now Michael will tell you about some new exciting things that are going to be released soon.
Michael Dennis:Absolutely. So for the Monarch, we are releasing now weekly new apps um which have to do with education. Jennifer, I'm not too sure. Can I can I share already a little bit more or should we be secretly about this?
Jennifer Wenzel:I think we should just tease people that these will be coming coming soon. I guess I mean if you want to say the name of maybe one of them so people get excited about it, because by the time this airs, most of them will be released.
Michael Dennis:All right.
Jennifer Wenzel:So that's up to me.
Michael Dennis:No, so we can definitely uh talk about uh one of the apps, and that's maybe a fun one everybody uh knows already. Um, and that is on the Monarch will be called Monarch 45W. Uh very cool app. So you can actually do that also in the future on your monarch. But there's also some very cool other educational apps uh coming out up till season in mid-March. So feel free to check your key updater every week and follow obviously all of our channels on Facebook and Twitter and our website and the newsletter to not miss out on um any of the releases. But you can just go to your key updater and with the 1.4 um update, there is also an option that you can just browse or scan um for any potential app update. So you can just um install any app updates uh on the monarch over those uh next weeks, and uh that way you can also enjoy um something like Monarch 45W. So um Jennifer, do you also want to tease our listeners?
Jennifer Wenzel:So another thing that will be coming very soon is a Cyber Chase Echo Explorer game, a PBS Kids game that will be fully accessible with tactographics and sound. So you won't want to miss that. And you'll find that, like Michael said, go into your key updater. There's a section now that will say install apps, and it will give you the choice. And if you don't want to install all the apps on the monarch, that's okay. You can do it at any time. But if you do want to install, you can select the app and install it. So make sure you're checking your monarch each week for those exciting installations. I believe they are scheduled to release on Tuesdays, so you want to check your monarch on Tuesdays.
Michael Dennis:And as we already mentioned, it will go on over the next several weeks up till mid-March when uh APH will be at CSUN in uh California. And uh that is all the news we wanted to share with you in our latest episode of the Tech Takeaways. And my name is Michael Dennis.
Jennifer Wenzel:And my name is Jennifer Wenzel. And all as always, if you have ideas for future podcasts, please email changemakers@ aph.org. Thanks so much for being with us today.
Sara Brown:Now we're gonna turn to the Kentucky Regional Braille Challenge. It was recently held at the Kentucky School for the Blind. I spoke with a few participants before the challenge began. Hi Miriam, and I just wanted to talk to you about today's Braille Challenge. Um, what are you looking forward to today? Oh, just trying to get as far as I can. Okay, and are you how did you prepare for the braille challenge? Um, I I practice and practice and practice. And what are you looking forward to today? Um trying to win. Trying to win. Is there any advice you have for anybody out else out there?
Braille Challenge Participant:Never give up.
Sara Brown:Alright, Marion, thank you so much. So tell me about today's Braille Challenge.
Braille Challenge Participant:What are you doing to succeed during today's braille challenge? So the Braille Challenge is all about Braille literacy, and we are celebrating Braille literacy and competing for that, and um what really makes me succeed is reading the questions and stuff as carefully as I can. Um and Braille allows me to read things as carefully as anyone else could in print. So now that Braille exists, everyone can have those that uh advantage of reading. Yeah. Now tell me, what would you say to somebody who's is this your first braille challenge? No, this is not my first. So, what would you say to someone who might be doing this for the first time? I would tell them to do their best. It's not about winning, it's about celebrating braille literacy and what it does for us. Alright, Carmen, and do you have anything else you would like to share with our listeners? Um, all I want to say is that I hope everyone has a nice day. Alright, Carmen, thank you so much and good luck today. Thank you.
Sara Brown:Hi, Krishna. Now, what are you excited about with the Braille Challenge?
Braille Challenge Participant:Uh, you know, it's so nice, you know. Uh I go to I go to this school and I get to see many different friends uh that I don't normally get to see, and you know, just competing against everyone and being, you know, here uh, you know, I've been to the finals uh a few years ago, like two years ago. And yeah.
Sara Brown:Okay, so you know what to expect. Are you look are you gonna try to win this year so you can go to California?
Braille Challenge Participant:Definitely we'll try. Uh I'm up a very against some people that are so good at Braille. Uh, and uh I hope I won't get too competitive. Uh, you know, just try my best, pretend it's just a long braille quiz and stay calm. And is there anything else you would like to share with our listeners about the Braille Challenge? Uh, if you uh highly recommend you would come and do it, and uh it's a lovely thing.
Sara Brown:And yeah, you want to introduce yourself and let our listeners know a bit about who you are and what we're doing here today.
Braille Challenge Participant:Sure, I'm Michael Haynes uh from the American Printing House for the Blind, and I'm the uh regional Kentucky coordinator for the Braille Challenge. And we are here for the 16th annual Braille Challenge, uh Regional Kentucky Braille Challenge 2026.
Sara Brown:And talk about the importance of something like this event, especially for children who might be blind or low vision. What's the importance?
Braille Challenge Participant:Well, the importance here is uh well first and foremost is uh braille literacy. Uh and this is an environment which allows them not only to compete with their peers, but it's also a fun environment. Uh we we make it as fun for them as possible. And there are not a lot of competitions. In fact, the Braille Challenge is unique in and of itself. There is no other competition like it in the U.S. So this is a real opportunity for them just to compete in this skill that they know so well.
Sara Brown:And talk about the importance of Braille literacy. Because some people out there that aren't maybe maybe too familiar with Braille or the world of blindness and low vision, talk about the importance of being able to read Braille versus relying strictly on audio and auditory cues.
Braille Challenge Participant:Right. Well, you know, I compare it to say uh uh a normally cited person who uses text. You know, we have to know how to read, and for them, braille is that equivalent skill. You know, of course, you know, we all can use audio, we have all kinds of technology available to us now, but you know, uh literacy is still literacy, you know, whatever that medium might be. And and that's that is the reason why Braille is so important.
Sara Brown:And uh what happens next after this Kentucky Regional Braille Challenge? What happens, where do the kids go, the winners from today's competition?
Braille Challenge Participant:Okay, after today we submit our uh all of our results to the Braille Institute in LA. Uh they will review all of the results nationwide, which usually come in by mid-March, and they will determine the top 50 contenders, so basically five uh ten contenders from all five levels from across the US, Canada, Australia, UK, and Ireland. Um they will determine who the top 50 are and they will be invited to LA to participate in the finals in June.
Sara Brown:All right. Well, is there anything else you'd like to share with our listeners on Change Makers before I let you go?
Braille Challenge Participant:Just uh we can always use support for this event. It's harder and harder to get volunteers every year, but we we usually get a good turnout though, and it's it's it's just a fun event for everybody, for the kids and the the volunteers and everybody involved, the teachers, everybody that make this possible.
Sara Brown:All right, Michael, thank you so much for coming and talking to me.
Braille Challenge Participant:Sure thing. Thank you.
Sara Brown:Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Change Makers. On the next episode, we're heading to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show. Learn all the latest about the products that are focusing on accessibility. This is always such a fun episode. I hope you tune in for that one. As always, be sure to look for ways you can be a change maker this week.