Annual Meeting 2025 Recap & Tech Takeaway

On this episode of Change Makers go inside the 2025 Annual Meeting held at the Louisville Marriott Downtown. For over a century, this gathering has brought together leaders, educators, and innovators in the field of blindness and low vision. You’ll hear firsthand from presenters, award winners, and attendees about the highlights, breakthroughs, and moments that made this year’s event unforgettable.

Stick around after the recap for our monthly Tech Takeaway, where we show you how to personalize your Monarch device.

On this episode (in order of appearance)

• Stephanie Steffer, CViConnect 
• Gabriel Einsohn, Marketing and Product Development The Puzzled Co.
• Tracy Gaines, CTEBVI Executive Director
• Connie Stone, National Prison Braille Network speaker
• Willow Free, APH Technical Innovations Product Manager
• Greg Stilson, APH Vice President of Digital Transformation
• Dr. William Wiener, Wings of Freedom award recipient
• Lee Nasehi, President and CEO of VisionServe Alliance
• Isaac Shapiro, Co-CEO and President of Cleanlogic
• Jennifer Wenzel, APH Technology Product Specialist
• Michael Dennis, APH Technology Products Specialist

Additional Links

• CViConnect
• The Puzzled Co. website
  • Memory Puzzles: Shapes
  • Memory Puzzles: Fruits & Veggies
  • Meet Your Match with Memory Puzzles: Shapes
  • Blog - My Sight: A Hands-On Curriculum Empowering Students
• CTEBVI
• VisionServe Alliance
• Cleanlogic Body Care
• National Prison Braille Network

Transcript

Narrator: 0:00

Welcome to Changemakers, 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: 0:15

Hello and welcome to Change Makers. I'm Sara Brown, APH's public relations manager, and today we're recapping the 2025 annual meeting. You'll hear from presenters, award winners, and other attendees who helped make this year's event memorable. After that, we've got our monthly tech takeaway where we'll walk you through how to customize your monarch to fit your needs and your style. But first, let's head to annual meeting. It took place at the Louisville Marriott downtown. Annual meeting is a tradition that's been going strong for over 100 years. It's an amazing chance for professionals working with the people who are blind or low vision to connect, share ideas, and check out the latest from APH, including new products and initiatives. Let's jump in to hear what others had to say. Alright, I'm in the Solutions Hall. And would you like to introduce yourself and let our listeners know who you are and who you're with?

Stephanie Steffer: 1:07

I'm Stephanie Steffer. I am with CBI Connect.

Sara Brown: 1:11

Awesome. And would you like to explain a little bit more about what CVI Connect is?

Stephanie Steffer: 1:15

Absolutely. So CVI Connect is an iPad-based application that allows learners with cortical visual impairments to have accessible materials. And while they are looking at the iPad, engaging with the iPad, the iPad's forward-facing camera is detecting if they're looking or looking away. If they are looking where they're looking at on the screen, we also have the microphone capturing decibel detection and able to capture touch detection. So with kids with cortical visual impairments, there's a lot more complexity to how they're using their vision and better understanding those environmental impacts that could be changing the way that they're able to use their functional vision. So this data will then help teachers and parents better understand how the child is able to use functional vision. And then with the APH version that we're working on getting ready to field test, you'll be able to pair that with your known APH products. For example, with the skeleton here today, the Littlest Pumpkin book that was just released, those types of things you can pair together so you get that multi-sensory approach to have kids have their hands on the manipulatives as well as something that's visually accessible. So they have all that multimodal learning.

Sara Brown: 2:22

So they're gonna so this it track is it just so it's tracking their eyes where their eyes are in conjunction to what they're reading?

Stephanie Steffer: 2:31

So it's going to be able to show you what's on the screen and where their eyes were during that time. So there are instances where we've seen us present things that we think are top of the line with research with where they should be. We presented to the kid, we think they're looking, but then we look back at the heat map and we realize they were actually fixated on the upper left-hand corner of the iPad using some eccentric viewing down below to find what they needed. And so they really aren't making eye-to-object contact. And so, what do we need to adapt as educators to help provide that more eye-to-object contact so they can actually determine features and actually identify what it is they're looking at? It's not something you would buy at a store, so it's not a physical product. It is a subscription that you can get for a download to have access to both the iPad application and as well as the web-based dashboard. So everything is completely HIPAA and FERPA compliant. So as the data is being sent back and forth, it's encrypted, all of the students' data is safe.

Sara Brown: 3:27

Okay, and you said this is about to go out for field testing, correct? Okay, so if it's about to go out for field testing, do you have any? I know you can't give you know exact dates because that's just the way of the world. Things change, life happens. Any seasons we can be expecting this to be available for download for anybody out there interested in wanting more.

Stephanie Steffer: 3:46

I'm optimistic that by next school year we will definitely have something available for you to check out. Um, we're hoping to field test soon, but obviously, like you said, what things change, you never know. It'll honestly depend on a lot of that feedback we get during field testing to determine how many other iterations we have to go through before we're ready to roll out. So hopefully next school year will be our optimistic shoot for that.

Sara Brown: 4:10

Awesome. And before I let you go, is there anything else you'd like to share? It could be about CVI Connect, it could be about anything.

Stephanie Steffer: 4:16

Uh I don't think so, but thank you for this opportunity. And if anyone has any questions, feel free to contact us um at cviconnect.co. Wonderful.

Sara Brown: 4:25

Stephanie, thank you so much for giving me a bit of your morning. Thank you so much. It was nice to meet you. I'm at this really cool company called the Puzzled Company by Waterjet Works, and I'm standing here with this really cool person. Would you like to introduce yourself and let our listeners know who you are?

Gabriel Einsohn: 4:39

Thank you. I am Gabriel Einsohn. I work with my dad. We are a dad-daughter company out of Dallas, Texas. We use Waterjet technology and tactile printing to create puzzles with APH in collaboration with APH and others. Our idea is that we make puzzles for everybody, uppercase B. We would like to be able to create puzzles and games and learning tools where if you are sighted or visually impaired, you can play together and learn together. So today we have been working a little bit on some products that were interesting to APH, but then we went a little bit outside of APH to present some prototypes that include a mitosis puzzle, a synonym and antonym matching puzzle that's also dynamic so that you can match the synonyms and antonyms together to extend the tool. Also allow for again a sighted student and a visually impaired student to sit together and have a lesson together in real time. We also have several puzzles that are magnetic, that are math related. Um, and then inside we're lucky enough today that they're presenting the MySight iPuzzle, which we've been working very diligently on. That's available both on the light box and as a tabletop activity.

Sara Brown: 6:05

So tell me, how did this company get started? Did you, you know, did you just say how can we help make a product to benefit students or children who are blind or low vision? Or what's the backstory to water to The Puzzled Company by Water Jet Works?

Gabriel Einsohn: 6:19

I am glad you asked because it's a good one. Uh my dad, Philip, started The Puzzled Co. in 1977 as a hippie school teacher in Austin, Texas, and maybe was one of the first person people to actually put braille on puzzles for students, but he was one little teacher and didn't know how to market it and and tell people about it, so he created these puzzles for his classroom because he noticed that there was not puzzles that had braille, there was no no tools, so he made them for his classroom. He was an early childhood educator. Um then he started moving on his career into manufacturing and started water jet design. Um and so during the pandemic, he said, Hey daughter, would you like to revive the puzzle company together? Because I think we can use this innovative water jet technology, which is extremely precise, is cut with a stream of water as thin as a strand of hair. And so we can make things for APH very, very, very smooth, which is nice, smooth edges, the water is environmentally friendly, etc. Um, and so we specialize in really working with lots of different types of material to create solutions for problems of uh making educational tools. So uh yeah, we started, we kicked it off in the pandemic making puzzles for everybody, and then about three years ago had the opportunity to start collaborating with APH, and it's been a dream.

Sara Brown: 7:44

So cool. Now, if anybody's interested in learning more, where can they go or what can they do?

Gabriel Einsohn: 7:50

The puzzled pu-z-z-l-ed.com. We have our APH products on our website, which directs to purchase here through aph.org. You can also follow us at the puzzled co where we have a lot of interesting content and some videos also of the printing process and the water jet process, which is fun to see.

Sara Brown: 8:13

Awesome. Well, Gabriel, thank you so much for taking time out of your day. I'm gonna let you get back to your booth, but thank you so much for taking time to talk to me on the podcast. Thank you very much. Have fun, everybody.

Tracy Gaines: 8:24

My name is Tracy Gaines. I'm the executive director of CTE BBI, California Transcribers and Educators for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

Sara Brown: 8:34

Okay, and tell us what it is that you're doing to here at APH's Annual Meeting.

Tracy Gaines: 8:39

Uh gathering information, um, networking and supporting the Prison, mostly the Prison Braille uh Forum. That's what I was here for today. And just basically the community as a whole and learning as much as I can what what the current events are.

Sara Brown: 9:08

Wonderful. Now, what are some of the things that you've learned in one of the sessions that you've been in? Do you mind to share just a few things?

Tracy Gaines: 9:15

Well, uh like I said, all day today I've been in the prison braille forum, and things are rolling along, but at the same time, as you know, we're facing some issues, uh, governmental, and you know, so there's gonna be, you know, uh new and inventive ways to get the word out, you know, and teaching braille to the students. Uh there is, there should be a sense of urgency. But um, yeah, that's that's the main thing is that um we're trying to work together as a community.

Sara Brown: 9:54

Wonderful. Now, is there anything you'd like to share before I let you go? Anything you would like to say about, you know, it could be about CTE B V I or just your time here at Annual Meeting?

Tracy Gaines: 10:03

Well, we have our Annual Meeting in April, 20 uh 2026, nine uh from the 16th to the 19th in April. We are trying to educate, uh, advocate as much as possible so that our students still reach their full potentials.

Sara Brown: 10:25

All right, well, thank you so much for taking time out of your day here at this conference to talk to me. Okay. Alright, so would you like to just introduce yourself and let our listeners know who you are and where you are from?

Connie Stone: 10:35

My name is Connie Stone, and I am a certified Burrell transcriber, and I am from Texas. I came out of the formerly Mountain View Braille Program, now it's known as the Billman Burrell Center, and where I transcribed for 15 years, and I have been out for six years, and I'm here as a guest speaker today.

Sara Brown: 11:02

Wonderful. So, what can you can you tell us a little bit about what you're gonna be discussing today?

Connie Stone: 11:07

I'm gonna be discussing how fantastic it is to come out of a braille program, how it changed my life, how going through a bad choice turned into a life changing, how um going through a braille program can change a life, how something that was negative in my life turned into something positive that I would have never thought the outcome. That uh going into prison where I thought my life had no hope, bro, changed that. I came out better than when I went in. I came uh I did have a degree when I went in, but I lost that. Uh going to prison made it where I had lost my career, but I came out with a better career. It has totally changed my life. I ended up coming out with an income that doubled an income from when I went in. And came out to a welcome family, a Braille family that welcomed me, even being a felon, and opened their arms to me. So it came out giving me a family that I didn't have when I came in.

Sara Brown: 12:38

So now, is there any takeaways, any words of wisdom you would like to share with our listeners about whether it be about the National Prison Braille Network or anything that you've gone through in your life?

Connie Stone: 12:50

Uh well the theme of this is Thrive. And so I think it it just tells you that no matter what obstacles come into your life, that you need to continue to grow with whatever happens, that not to dwell on what's going on with you, but to look at it and just keep moving forward. And you can work with what you have and just keep putting your foot in front of you and just keep moving forward. I mean, everyone, life happens, and it's just about don't stop, just keep moving forward and just keep going. And there are people all around you that will keep pushing you forward, and you may be the person that's pushing the person next to you forward.

Sara Brown: 13:35

All right, Miss Connie, thank you. Thank you so much, and good luck on your speech today. Naturally, at an APH conference, you bump into some colleagues. I found Willow Free, who presented about ebraille during multiple sessions, and after her presentation, I talked to her about the latest updates with the Monarch. All right, I'm here with somebody who you've heard multiple times on our podcast. Would you like to introduce yourself and let our listeners know who you are?

Willow Free: 14:01

Hi, my name is Willow Free, she/ her, and I'm a product manager at APH.

Sara Brown: 14:05

Alright, Willow, you're a staple on here, and you always have such cool updates. Can you can you let us know what's new in the world with Monarch?

Willow Free: 14:14

Well, we have a really exciting update coming with a lot of stuff in it that I'm not going to be able to get into, but one of the coolest things in this 1.4 update is cloud storage support. So you will be able to use Google Drive, you will be able to use OneDrive, you'll be able to save your documents, open your documents. With Google Drive, it's particularly seamless. You can operate out of your Google Drive just like you would on your phone, work on a file, and then save it, and it'll go right back into your Google Drive. This is a feature that people have wanted in different Rail products for years and years, and we're so excited to bring this to folks in 1.4. And it's just going to continue to get better. Another big one is we recently had support for JAWS and NVDA on the Monarch, and it was via USB only. Well, with 1.4, you'll be able to access them via Bluetooth, which will make it even more efficient and seamless.

Sara Brown: 15:09

Wonderful. Now tell us real quick, what are you here doing at Annual Meeting?

Willow Free: 15:14

Uh I'm doing uh several ebraille presentations. I'm joining in on some Monarch presentations. I'm about to present at the Prison Braille Forum with Nicole Gaines. So it's a busy annual meeting, and I'm excited to be here.

Sara Brown: 15:26

All right. Do you have anything you want our listeners to know or leave with our listeners before I let you go?

Willow Free: 15:30

If you didn't get to join us at Annual Meeting this year, I hope you'll join us in the future.

Sara Brown: 15:33

Awesome. Willow, thank you so much.

Willow Free: 15:36

Thanks.

Greg Stilson: 15:37

Later, I bumped into Greg Stilson. He's been on this podcast multiple times, and every time he's on here, he brings a multitude of information. All right, so I'm here with a person you've heard multiple times on our podcast, the infamous Mr. Greg Stilson. Hello, Greg, and welcome to Change Makers. Thanks so much. Nice to be here.

Sara Brown: 15:57

And congratulations on your new promotion to let our listeners know who you are. Let them know who I'm talking to now.

Greg Stilson: 16:03

Uh I am the VP of digital transformation here at APH. Um, and so I lead the uh technology innovation team along with uh the studio that uh the studio team that records a lot of the talking books that you, our listeners may be listening to through NLS, National Library Service, or other sources like that.

Sara Brown: 16:23

So, well, congratulations on that. Now we're here at Annual Meeting, so I'm not gonna try to hold and bogard all your time, but I do want to touch base about the new Monarch 1.4 updates. Do you have anything you can share about what users can expect with this new update when it's available?

Greg Stilson: 16:38

Yeah, absolutely. So this is a a pretty big update. Uh we're we're adding in uh one of the most requested features, which is I always say it's Monarch goes to the clouds. So we we're incorporating and integrating with uh Google Classroom slash you know Google Drive uh along with schools that are OneDrive districts as well. So um if you if you are a district that uses the Microsoft 365 suite, or if you're a school that uses the Google Drive suite, um what you'll end up getting is a new app called KeyDrive. And what Key Drive does is it sort of facilitates the login to those platforms. And so once you log into those platforms, you'll basically in your uh file manager application, you'll now see your normal storage or your thumb drive or whatever else, but now you'll see KeyDrive, and within KeyDrive, you'll see your Google Drive or your OneDrive integrations where you can copy and paste files, move files around, and even edit files uh within the drive. So one example is if your teacher has created uh a math assignment with math objects in Google Docs, uh the the student can open that file within KeyDrive and they can open it in in Keyword just like they would normally open it up in their word processor. They can edit the math objects and they can press space with S and it saves that file directly into the Google Drive for the teacher in real time.

Sara Brown: 18:02

That is amazing. That is amazing develop an amazing development. And touch a little bit about this new award the Monarch received. The time, the best inventions, one of the best inventions of 2025 in accessibility. How does that feel about how do you feel about that?

Greg Stilson: 18:18

You know, it's uh it's it's an awesome recognition, and the reason I I bring it up is it's because it's a mainstream public, you know, uh it's a mainstream um media, right? It's a mainstream media. So it it recognizes our niche market that we have and the importance of access to digital information, and that's really what the Monarch provides. Yes, it's a really cool device that has you know a ton of pins that pop up and make graphics and and braille and things like that, but most importantly, it provides access to information, and so to get that recognition from the general media um it really shows the importance that that accessibility has.

Sara Brown: 18:59

And my final question: can you tell us a little bit more about what's going on with APH and the PBS Kids app, Echo Chase, Echo Explorer Cyber Chase?

Greg Stilson: 19:10

Yes, this this one is I think my favorite uh thing to talk about. Now I have young kids, right? I've got a five and a nine-year-old. They have been PBS Kids kids for a long time, right? They watch the shows, they play the PBS Kids app on the iPad, that kind of stuff. As blind people, we do not get access to the same gamified experience that a sighted kid gets. And so what we did is we we partnered with PBS Kids. Uh, and what they did is they have these accessible games that, you know, kudos to them. They made these games accessible to a screen reader on the computer or on the tablet or any of that uh for for anyone who wants to use it, right? So they incorporated um image descriptions, uh, they incorporated captions for deaf of hearty, deaf and hard of hearing. But what that did for us is because these games were universally designed, they gave us the code for this one game, Cyber Chase Echo Explorer, and we ported it over to the Monarch. And I am beyond excited about this because for the first time ever, a blind kid is going to be playing the same game on a tactile experience as their sighted peers at the same time, right? So if they if their friend is playing Cyber Chase Echo Explorer, they can play the exact same game and have an amazing experience doing it.

Sara Brown: 20:28

And that's so cool, and we love to hear that. That's that that's that full-on accessibility, no sorts of othering. Everybody's playing this playing and same having the same experience. Greg, is there anything else you would like to share? When will this game be available? Around the season.

Greg Stilson: 20:44

We are hoping by the end of the year, we're hoping kind of a holiday release is what we're expecting, but uh expect field testing here within the next month or so.

Sara Brown: 20:52

Awesome. Greg, is there anything you would like to share before I let you go so you can go back and enjoy annual meeting?

Greg Stilson: 20:56

No, thank you all so much.

Sara Brown: 20:58

Thank you, Greg. Now it was time for the award ceremony. True trailblazers in the blindest and low vision field were honored. The Wings of Freedom Award is the highest honor presented by APH. It was established to honor individuals who have shown exemplary leadership in the blindest or low vision field. The award is given periodically and only as deserved. And this year's recipient is Dr. William Weiner. I spoke with Dr. Weiner.

William Weiner: 21:25

I've been in the field for quite a long time. Um I started teaching in Cleveland, Ohio. And uh I then went on to a number of different universities. I was at Western Michigan University, and currently I'm teaching part-time at North Carolina Central University. I retired about a year ago. And uh my specialty is orientation and mobility. And um I've been involved in the field for a long time in working with um a preparation of new professionals, preparing them to become individuals who can work with uh a number of individuals who are blind and visually impaired.

Sara Brown: 22:02

So you've been in this field a long time. What are some of the changes you've noticed over your time in the field?

William Weiner: 22:07

Well, one of the biggest changes I think is technology. Uh when I first started in the field, there was no such thing as GPS. Um our electronic travel aids were strictly meant to help individuals avoid obstacles. And nowadays I think the movement is towards EOAs or electronic orientation aids, and to really uh gain information about what's immediately around them rather than using the devices as much as a an obstacle detector, it's really to help with orientation.

Sara Brown: 22:41

So, do you have any words for those in the field right now? What are some words of wisdom that you would like to share with them?

William Weiner: 22:48

Well, it's a wonderful profession, and if you care about people, it's a great profession to be in. You can make a change in people's lives very, very quickly by providing some basic skills, and it really helps uh individuals to become independent and can change their whole lives.

Sara Brown: 23:06

After that, the Horizon Award was given to Ray Kurtzwell. The Horizon Award recognizes individuals who continually pursue innovative ideas that result in the development of products designed to improve the quality of life for people who are blind or low vision. NFB President Margaret Ricabono accepted the award on Kurtzwell's behalf. Following the Horizon Award, the Navigator Award was given. The Navigator Award honors the collaborative efforts and partnerships that break down barriers and create pathways for individuals to have access to education and life. This year, the award recipient is VisionServe Alliance, Lee Nassahi, president and CEO of VisionServe Alliance, accepted the award on the company's behalf.

Lee Nasehi: 24:16

That's our first mission, but our so that they can serve people better, right? We all have the same mutual constituents. But then we also look around the country and see what issue is sort of an orphan that no other organization is leading, and and we seize on that and we try to move it forward. So for a number of years we've been focused on aging and vision loss, and it's still very much in the forefront of what we're doing. But we broadened it a little bit to say it's not just seniors who don't have access to vision rehabilitation services, it's all adults. And we know that's a big goal to change that. We don't want to change it, we don't want to move it from 5% to 10%. We want everybody who needs services to get it. And I truly believe if all of us in this field work on that together, we're gonna get there.

Sara Brown: 25:07

Absolutely, absolutely. Is there anything else you'd like to share before I let you go to enjoy your night?

Lee Nasehi: 25:13

Yes, I'll say it one more time. If you're not a member of Vision Serve Alliance yet, what are you waiting for? We need you. We need you.

Sara Brown: 25:21

Absolutely. And we'll be sure to put a link in our show notes to Vision Serve Alliance. So, Lee, congratulations again on your award and thank you so much for giving me time tonight to talk to you. Thank you. Thank you for talking with me. The last award given was the Louis Award. The Louis Award, named after Louis Braille, honors products, ideas, or efforts that significantly increase the availability or awareness of Braille and tactile graphics. This award is given only when an initiative truly inspires action and creativity. This year, the award winner is Clean Logic. I spoke with Isaac Shapiro, co-CEO and president of Clean Logic.

Isaac Shapiro: 25:58

So uh I'm Isaac Shapiro, the founder of Clean Logic, and we're a purpose-driven brand of Bath and Skincare Tools, known for our unique exfoliating fabrics. Uh, but really what we do from our purpose side is uh create job opportunities for individuals with disabilities at our own organization, and then we also founded the Inspiration Foundation, uh, which is a 501c3 uh where we promote uh job opportunities and tech grant awards.

Sara Brown: 26:26

Now let our listeners know about the history and the story behind it because you shared a very touching story about your mother.

Isaac Shapiro: 26:33

Yes, so my mom has been my inspirational why I'm a social entrepreneur and why I'm so passionate about creating job opportunities for people with disabilities. My mom's been blind since age seven. Uh she's had an amazing career in story, first starting immigrating from Mexico, going to the school in the US. Uh, but it's her passion for computers and adapt technology that I watched growing up and her creating a tech training program that really inspired me to do the work that I do today.

Sara Brown: 27:00

Now, do you have any words of wisdom or words of advice for anybody out there looking to start their own company or do something that's gonna also aim to employ individuals who may be blind or low vision? What are some tips or some thoughts about that? Well, I think the number one thing that has gotten me through uh the social entrepreneur world is accepting failure, and failure is what gets you to the next step, uh, even though we never like that. We don't like to be challenged, we don't like to be uncomfortable, but it's those times that I feel when you're uncomfortable, it's that motivator and that no that keeps pushing you to go forward, and so that's really what my journey has been is about failure. Alright, well, Isaac, thank you so much for giving me a few minutes of your time tonight.

Isaac Shapiro: 27:47

Great, thank you.

Sara Brown: 27:48

If you would like to read more about the award winners, please check our show notes. They are truly a great group of individuals. This wraps up my recap of annual meeting. A lot of excitement, new faces, and information for all attendees. And if you are interested in learning more about some of the topics I covered in this segment, please check the show notes. Now it's time for our tech takeaway. This monthly segment brings you everything you need to know about the monarch. Here are your hosts, Jennifer Wenzel and Michael Dennis.

Michael Dennis: 28:20

Hello everyone, and welcome to our new episode of the Tech Takeaways. My name is Michael Dennis.

Jennifer Wenzel: 28:27

And my name is Jennifer Wenzel, and we're so excited that you are here for our fifth episode of Tech Takeaways.

Michael Dennis: 28:34

And today we will um go over some settings on the monarch, how you actually can customize it. I think that is something a lot of people don't really know, that you do have the ability to make uh the monarch a little bit more special to yourself. Um and uh it's actually gonna be about five different areas we want to talk about. And uh wait for the fifth one because that's actually a fun one where we discovered that not a lot of people know about that particular um customization option. But uh we want to start actually with um something where everyone is always in and that is the main menu, and uh Jennifer will tell you guys how you actually can customize it. Since there's a lot of apps also under all applications, and you may need some more and some less. Maybe you are more the person who is gonna play the chess on the monarch and don't want to go always in all applications, or you're more into math and you need all the math apps. So, Jennifer, how can our monarch users do that?

Jennifer Wenzel: 29:36

Well, it's a great question. So I love this feature because I love to make my monarch my own. This might be a great feature if you're using it with different types of students. Some people like everything more under all applications. So Menu of the monarch, the way that it comes. And I'm going to go into all applications. I've decided that I want to play chess a lot. All applications. And I'm going to find monarch chess. When we go to all applications, we need to hit enter on all applications. And that will actually bring us a new applications list. That is a very important step. So now I'm going to use the letter M for Monarch Chess to find Monarch Chess. Monarch Chess. And there it is. So now my I have a focus symbol, that little waffle type focus symbol right by monarch chess. And to add it to my menu, I'm going to do enter with M. M for menu, M for mine. Whatever you way helps you remember it. Monarch chess added to menu. So now it has been added to the menu. But you will notice if I'm on my menu here, if I hit home and go to the menu. And I use math. Key math. I've got math. But there's no monarch. That's because I'm not in my custom menu yet. I was in the main menu. And I added monarch chest, but what I added it to is the custom menu. And right now there's only one custom menu, so you can have your main menu and your custom menu. So I'm going to use backspace enter X to go to the custom menu. My menu. Which is my menu. And now if I use F Math, key math, monarch chess. Monarch Chess is there on my menu. Now, what if I didn't want it there anymore? Could I get rid of it? I absolutely can. I can do enter with M again. It's the same command. It's like a toggle. Alert, confirm item removal. Are you sure you want to remove monarch chess from this menu? And it wants to know remove. I'm sure. And the remove button is at the bottom, so I can use 456 with space to focus on the remove button and hit enter. Monarch chess removed from menu. And it's my menu. Internet browser. I can see. And if I ever want to go back to the main menu, the regular default menu, I can use backspace enter X again. Main menu. And I'm editor. So that's a really fun way to be able to customize your menu. When you are on your menu, it puts everything in alphabetical order. So whatever you add will be put in alphabetical order. And you'll be able to use first letter navigation or point and click, just like on the regular menu, to find it. So now we will move to Michael, who will tell you some fun ways to customize things like your voice and your braille table on the Monarch.

Michael Dennis: 32:53

Absolutely. Maybe you have heard already about it. We're actually talking about language profiles. And you can easily access the language profiles if you're in your main menu and you hit space and O. And it will already give you then the options to customize your language profile, to add a new one, to change actually the settings in your current language profile. And if you do that and open one of the language profiles, or you add a new one, you have a decent amount of options. How you can customize actually also your monarch from that particular perspective. It supports right now also with the voice and the literary prior table, French, German, and Spanish. So for folks who are working on those three languages, also the monarch can be your friend. And that brings me already to the first things you can change. You can change the voice. So the speech engine, actually, you can go through a very, very long list. Also with different languages, actually, where you can find different languages. If you prefer male voice or female voice, you can change that. You can also change in there your Braille grade. Very important, maybe if you're using the monarch with a young student who is just an uncontracted Braille, or if you're already advanced and you use contracted rail, you can change that in there. You also can choose the math grade in here. So since we have all over the country people who use UAB or Namoth, you can change that also in those settings. The speech speech rate, so the speed can be changed here, but don't worry, you don't need to go every single time back into that menu to change it later on. You just have the ability to do that through some uh key shortcuts wherever you are in the settings if the speech rate gets too slow for you. And as I said, you also have the ability to change your literary braille table. That is actually very important, especially if you want to work in foreign languages. Um since my native language is uh German, I have on my monarch a German language profile, and you have to actually select an also German braille table because we have some characters in German which do not exist in English. And if an English if you don't change it from English in that moment to German, the monarch also will not pronounce it properly. And that is what you want to avoid um confusing your monarch and maybe get a very weird pronunciation. You will figure that already out when you um use it, for example, with a different language like German, and you just go through the main menu because those apps obviously don't change the names, they still have the English names. It sounds very funny. But if you're then, for example, in the word editor um and you want to just write a German text, it has then perfect German pronunciation. And uh that is actually the things, the main things you can change in the language profiles. As I said, you can just access them through Space NO through the options menu. Uh, you can put I've not heard about any limitations. I think I have now four or five for for demo purposes on the Monarch. Uh, so you can also utilize them that you um can also have one device being used by multiple students in your school um or in college or wherever you are. And uh with that said, um, we have a really fantastic new app, which uh Jennifer it came out with the 1.2 update, our keymail. That is actually an app which also wants to maybe send you notifications, what do you know from your smartphone? And uh, Jennifer will tell you guys a little bit more about the whole situation about any notifications you can turn on and off.

Jennifer Wenzel: 37:06

Absolutely. But first, I just wanted to really quickly say that for language profiles, if you want to change your language profile, um, you can once you set them up, you can do it in the options menu where Michael was with the space with O. You can also use a really fun shortcut, which is enter with L. And that will bring up, if you have more than two, it will bring up a list of your profiles. If you only have two, it will toggle back and forth between your profiles.

Michael Dennis: 37:33

It will just switch. Yeah, that's a great, that's a great one to throw in there.

Jennifer Wenzel: 37:36

Yep, it's always fun to have that little shortcut. Um, so now we'll talk about notifications. So, yes, keymail is the app that will send you notifications. And I personally have a couple of different email accounts on my monarch that are sending me different emails. I have my work email, I have a personal email, and I have a demo email. And so I'm getting a lot of notifications on my monarch. And while I sometimes want the sound of a notification, sometimes I'm in a setting where I don't want those sounds to go off. So I'm going to tell you about the ways to customize your notifications. There's a couple of them. So we'll first go into settings, and I'm going to use enter with Q to go into settings. That's a quick little shortcut. Notifications, notification history, conversations. So mine actually came up focused on notification and notification history and conversations. That's where you would go. Yours may not do that. You may have to push N to get there. Mine came up that way because I had used that last. So now I'm going to hit enter. Notifications. Manage. And now this gives me ways to manage my notifications. It's got some things that don't apply, like having a bubble and things like that. Although that may show up on a monitor. I'm not sure. Um, but what I'm going to go to is um you can set how your notifications can appear on your lock screen. Um where you can have notifications appear there or not appear there. And that can be important for people. Sometimes people want to see that when their screen is locked, sometimes they don't. Um you can do not disturb off. Go to do not disturb. And in do not disturb, you can turn it on. Right now it's off. Do not go into we're gonna hit enter. And so now there's you can turn on now, um, and then you have choices of what can interrupt it. Um and then you can also make a schedule. Schedules, none, um, which is really nice. So, for instance, I have a work schedule set so that I don't get notifications during my work day. I don't get the sounds. So someone could switch, could set that so that they don't get the sounds of notifications at school. When you go into the schedules, it gives you schedules. Schedule. It gives you days of the week. Sleeping, sun, sat, 10 p.m. minus 7 a.m. So they they have a default sleeping schedule, which you can go in and change, and then you can also go in and change. You can add more. Um, you can take an event, um, you can turn your sleeping on or off, and then you can add more schedules, and it'll give you days of the week and it'll give you times, and you can customize that schedule. Now, if you're in the keymail app, braille editor, key email, you can go to key mail, and I'm I went back to the main menu using my home button, and now I'm in I use an E to go to email and I'm going to hit enter. Settings. And I'm going to go to settings for keymail. Monarch entered.org. Sync contacts. Sync contacts for this account. Checkbox. And I have um you what would it will bring up a list of accounts, and I'm in my tests or my monarch test email account. And I'm going to go down to I'm going to use the choose ring tone default on the hunt to go to choose ringtone. I'm going to hit enter. And I am presenting with a huge notification ringtone. Checked. But the top one is or I'm sorry, the fault top one is default. Um, and that box is checked right now. You can also check none. So if you want to completely mute your notifications, you're able to do that. But also, I get a whole list of ringtones, and probably one of my favorite, at least for the name of it, is caffeinated rattlesnake. Caffeinated rattlesnake. And I don't think you'll be able to hear this sound, but maybe we're gonna kind of see if you can, because it doesn't come through like the speech does. But I'm gonna hit enter on caffeinated rattlesnake. Checked. I don't know if you heard that, but it kind of makes like a rattle, like a like a snake. So that is one of the fun ones that you can pick, but there's lots of them. Um, and once you um pick that, you can hit okay. When you hit enter on the ringtone, at the bottom, there will appear an okay button. So you can go to the bottom and hit notification okay. Cancel okay button. And now caffeinated rattlesnake. Choose ringtone. Caffeinated rattlesnake. And that's how you know that you did it. So lots of fun things to experiment with on your notifications. And if you like to change it up a little, you can change it up whenever you'd like. Now Michael will talk to you about some customization with the display if you have your monarch connected to a monitor.

Michael Dennis: 42:49

Yeah, but fun fun fact in that case, um, you also can do some customizations in that menu for your actual monarch monitor. So for your monarch braille screen. Um we need to go to the settings menu, and in there you have an option for display, and you can go in there. And it differentiates then also between your um actual monarch braille display and then HDMI connected display. That's also then the headline for that particular section, which has just says HDMI. So you just go into your um settings menu and uh choose then display, and there you have then the ability to just do um the display settings. But the important thing in that moment is if you want to do it for your external monitor connected to your monarch, you need to do it, you need to choose the options listed under HDMI, which is the connection type we have um with the monarch and the external monitor. So what you can do there is actually you can change the brightness, you can also invert the colors, you can also make the font bigger. If you have seen these three options for font, color and brightness, that is the main things you can actually change. And for me as a user who's preferring white writing on a black background, that is actually very helpful. Um, also that you can change the brightness level. But also some fun things you can change change in here is actually when your Axon Monarch display turns off, you can set it after 30 seconds of inactivity. I don't know who will do that, but I'm just telling you guys, you would have that opportunity. And it's some some very, very self-explanatory settings you can do in here. And it is really to your personal um and individual likings um all around the monarch display and the external monitor. And especially if you work in a school setting and you're maybe not as Braille literate or like you're in a in a public school and your teachers don't know Braille, having the ability to connect an external monitor and also make it then very comfortable for uh the teacher following along, what you're doing on the monarch is a huge win and a huge benefit of the monarch. But especially when you have your monarch in the classroom, maybe you don't want that everyone just reads what's on there. And Jennifer, tell our listeners what you can do about that.

Jennifer Wenzel: 45:19

So I will, but I wanted to also mention that when you have your monarch, um, when you're working on the display, you can also put your monarch in what's called dark theme, which will automatically change that background um so that you do get your the opposite background of normal. So usually I believe it is black writing on a black on white. Black on white. So the um dark theme is um white writing on a back, black background, and that will show up on any monitor that you use, which it can be handy for, especially for visual braille. Apparently, that shows up much better. So, one thing that is great if you're in a classroom or you're in a situation where you have your monarch in different places, and maybe you don't want everyone unlocking it or knowing what's on it. Maybe you want to be sort of more in control of how your monarch is opened and used. Um, and now maybe this isn't something you want to know because maybe you don't want students locking it, but just in case a student figures this out and locks it and you need to unlock it, you might need to know this. Um so you have the ability now to lock the monarch with a passcode. Um, and so I'm going to go into these settings again. Settings, notifications, notification history, conversations. But we are not going there. We are going to go to 7% use minus 149 gigabytes free. Security, screen lock and find my device, and app security. That's the setting we are going to. Security. Device security. And the first um, you have device security, and then the next option is screen lock none. Right now it is that to screen lock none, which is just the normal default way. But now I'm going to go in. Choose a screen lock none. Current screen lock. The next thing is password. Password. So I'm going to hit password. Edit box. Password entry is required. So now I have a direct password. And it can be really anything, it does not give me any limit. Um, I'm just going to write the word hello. Now, hello is not going to be the password that my monarch normally uses. So if you find my monarch somewhere, you're not going to be able to use that. But for now, I'm just going to use hello as a password. Re-enter your password. I hit enter, and then it gives me a prompt to re-enter it. So I'm re-entering the word hello. I'm hitting enter. Lock screen. And then it says, How do you want the lock screen to display? You can do you can show all notification content. You can show sensitive content only when unlocked, or you can not show notifications at all. So I'm going to go to that. Show sensitive content only when don't show notifications at all. Radio button and checked. I'm going to check that and then I'm going to hit done. Security. Screen lock. Password. So now my screen lock is password. So when I lock my monarch screen, I will need to do a password to get it unlocked. And say I didn't really mean to do that and I want to change it. I go back in. Edit box. Password entry is required. The one trick of this is you have to remember the password you used. I'm going to use hello. Choose a new screen lock. And I can choose a new screen lock and it focuses on none. And that's what I'm going to hit. Delete screen lock. And then it asks me if I'm sure. And it says delete screen lock. A password protects your phone if it's lost or stolen, which is kind of funny because the monarch is clearly not a phone, but we are going to hit delete. Security. Screen lock. And now we're back to normal. But that is a great way that if you want to, you can protect your monarch using a password. So those are five ways that you can customize your monarch for yourself or your students.

Michael Dennis: 49:10

And we hope that you definitely enjoyed that particular episode and that you have fun playing around with the customizations on your monarchs. And uh my name is Michael Dennis.

Jennifer Wenzel: 49:22

And my name is Jennifer Wenzel. And please join us next time when we're going to switch it up and talk about some different exciting products and features, not monarch related.

Michael Dennis: 49:32

So see you at the next episode of the Tech Takeaways.

Sara Brown: 49:39

Thank you so much, Jennifer and Michael. I can't wait to hear what they have for us next month. Thank you for listening to this episode of Changemakers. I hope you have enjoyed the recap of annual meeting and the latest news in our tech takeaway. Don't forget to check the show notes for additional information about the topics covered in this episode. Also, be sure to send an email to changemakers at aph.org if you have any follow up questions or podcast topic suggestions. I always like to hear those. And as always, be sure to look for ways you can be a change maker this week.