Monarch Making a Difference: Scott Erichsen’s Story

Monarch was designed for both students and adults. Whether in a home, office, or school setting, Monarch was created to make learning simpler and foster independent workers.  

Scott Erichsen works for the Australian Public Service and is an avid piano player. Born fifteen weeks early, he was given too much oxygen. Although he had vision for the first five months of his life, Scott was later diagnosed as being completely blind. 

Originally attending St. Lucy’s, a blind school that supports children with various disabilities in Wahroonga, New South Wales, Scott integrated into the mainstream school his two brothers attended at the age of ten. Later, he would attend the Sydney Conservatorium where he studied Jazz Performance, graduating with first class honors.  

After graduating, Scott spent the next eleven years in the assistive technology industry, working in Sales, Support, and training. In 2019, he started his second degree program, choosing law because it was “very text based.” Scott graduated with his Juris Doctor (JD) degree just last year and now works for the Australian Public Service.  

Two days after graduating he received his Monarch device. Scott had first heard about the Monarch multiline braille device when he attended the Mantis Launch party at CSUN in 2020. When he went back in 2023, they had the Monarch prototype on display. 

Consisting of a five-day-a-week, five-month long course, Scott’s legal training was essentially a “mini-advocacy” workshop that included how to draft a contract, letters of advice, as well as negotiations. As one of the witnesses during the hypothetical criminal trial, he said “It was so nice to just sit there and read on the Monarch. It was effortless. I was just one of the other students.” As part of the workshop, participants had to discuss whether they were going to alter any facts. “It was great to have a document that had been prepared in the last five minutes,” Erichsen said. “What was even more revolutionary to me was that it was multiline. The person just gave me the Word document. I was really excited!” 

Scott wishes the Monarch had been around when he was working on his university degree, saying “Obviously, with law and the amount of reading you have to do…It would have been really nice to have a Monarch then.” As for his personal life, he’s used it for everything from reading, to looking at graphics and various other things. “I’m super excited about the screen reader support,” Erichsen said. “That’s going to be a game changer.” Although he uses Monarch for a lot of reading now, he says he has to prepare files for it. “With screen reader support, the possibilities are amazing!”  

A piano player, Scott is most excited to try music on the Monarch, such as reading a piano or vocal score. Referencing Treasure Island and the new eBraille format, he said, “It’s going to be a whole new way that everyone looks at creating brand new braille files. eBraille is going to allow you to embed graphics and braille in the same document, making reading for leisure easily accessible to everyone.”   

One of Scott’s favorite features is the Tactile Graphics Image Library (TGIL). “The fact that you can zoom in and put your finger down and tap into a specific area of the display. You can really explore what you’ve got in front of you,” Erichsen said. “You’ve got to explore the whole page with your hands and see what’s there and the Monarch gives you the ability to do that.” Having the ability to write, draw, use the internet, and see a webpage layout are all things Scott looks forward to experiencing on the Monarch. “I’m confident we’re going to see a lot more interactive things, as well,” he said. 

When asked how he sees Monarch impacting the future, Scott says he’d like to see it aimed at more than education. “I can see the Monarch in museums and libraries. The more people that can get their hands on Monarch the more it will impact the future.” 

In his spare time, Scott Erichsen plays the piano. He bought a six-foot grand piano just last year and performs regularly. His guide dog, “Rachel,” also has her “Juris Dogtor” degree, and he says she and his first guide dog, Zelda, are both musically educated as a result of him taking them to gigs all of the time.