A Bigger Milestone, a Broader Reach: MSPP Enters Year Three

A Milestone Worth Celebrating

American Printing House for the Blind (APH) is celebrating a major milestone for the Monarch Student Pilot Project (MSPP). As we enter the project’s third year, the 500^th student has been selected to participate! More than 250 students were selected for year three alone, making this year’s incoming group the largest yet.

MSPP provides young braille readers access to Monarch in their everyday learning environments. Students and their educators share feedback throughout the project, helping APH understand how the technology fits into real classrooms and what students and educators need to use it successfully. To learn more about the project, please visit our Meet Monarch webpage.

Starting with More

There are even more reasons to celebrate! This year also marks a significant expansion of MSPP to include students as young as first grade, bringing an even wider range of experiences into the project.

For some of the youngest students joining MSPP, Monarch may be their first experience with refreshable braille. Their introduction to refreshable braille technology will begin with multiple lines rather than a single line. It’s hard to anticipate all the ways that starting point could shape how these students learn, explore tactile information, and understand what accessible technology can make possible.

These students will be developing their braille and tactile literacy skills alongside technology that allows them to encounter information across multiple lines from the beginning. As they grow, so will their experiences with reading, writing, mathematics, tactile graphics and digital information. Their expectations for what accessible technology can provide may develop differently as well.

At the other end of the spectrum are students preparing for life after high school, bringing years of braille experience, established learning strategies and increasingly complex academic needs. Between them are students at every stage of that journey.

The Next Chapter

As students look ahead to the new school year, their goals for Monarch are just as varied as they are, ranging from becoming tactile graphic designers, chess wizards, composers, and software developers. One incoming middle schooler captured that sense of possibility simply: “This year I want to discover new things!”

More than 500 students selected is an exciting milestone for MSPP. Ultimately, year three may be remembered just as much for how early that opportunity now begins.

To stay up to date on MSPP and the other Monarch Projects, subscribe to the Monarch Monitor Newsletter for project news, stories, resources, and future opportunities.