Monarch is Making a Difference: Ander Mielke’s Homeschool Story

The Monarch is designed for students in any learning environment. Whether in a public, private, or homeschool setting, the Monarch was created to make learning simpler and to foster independent workers. 

Ander Mielke is an eighth grade homeschool student from Montana who is blind. His mom, Whitney, teaches Ander and his sighted siblings together at home. Ander started using the Monarch in September 2024, which he received through the Monarch Student Pilot Program. An outreach consultant from the Montana School for the Deaf and Blind nominated him for the program.  

Previously, Ander had been using the BrailleNote Touch, a single-line braille display from HumanWare, which he began using at the age of 8. While Ander had no trouble transitioning from one device to the other, he has noticed clear differences in using the Monarch. “It’s nice having multiple lines, especially for assignments that have a list or a fill in the blank. It’s all a little easier because of the Monarch,” said Ander.  

Ander’s mom Whitney purchases the curriculum for Ander at the same time as his other siblings. One of Ander’s siblings is in the same grade, which allows them to move through their work together. In the past, she would order individual copies of the lessons in braille, but with the Monarch she now has the ability to simply email files to Ander’s device without the waiting period.  “One year I was ready to start the school year, but his copies weren’t going to be ready for another whole month, so we had to hold off,” said Whitney. “Going from that to just downloading what we want and having it readily available is a huge difference.”  

For most school curriculum, inclusion of questions with a fill in the blank, matching, or word search option, is extremely common. With a single-line display, Ander found himself working much harder to find answers alongside his sighted siblings. The formatting limitations meant that certain activities had to be adapted or discarded altogether. Now, he is able to keep their pace with his Monarch. “I’d have to figure out how to draw a line from one answer to another, and there were activities that I had to adapt before that I don’t have to anymore,” said Ander.  

Even simple reading comprehension questions that require students to review the text are much harder to navigate on a single-line braille display. Having to navigate past text is time-consuming and can create a distance between students and their sighted peers, or in Ander’s case, the siblings he is working with. “The thing we take for granted having sight, is being able to scan the page. And now, he has the ability to scan the page,” said Whitney. “It feels like he can keep up.” 

As Ander continues to learn the Monarch’s capabilities with games, tactile graphics, and more, he recognizes that the opportunities for greater learning and further independence, are right within his grasp.