Helping Students Soar with Wing It

With an ever-growing need for tactile graphics, American Printing House’s new Wing It app puts tactile images into the hands of everyone. Wing It is a new application that gives users an infinite canvas for creating tactile graphics on the fly. The app pairs with Monarch and is available in the iOS app store. 

Addressing Needs

Anyone can use Wing It to create tactile graphics and watch them appear on the Monarch device. Simply open the app on your Monarch or iOS device, start drawing, and feel the dots as they begin to ‘appear’ on Monarch. This application addresses a multitude of needs for Monarch users both in and out of the classroom.  

For teachers with students who are blind or low vision, being able to construct a graphic that appears on the student’s device can help bridge the gap between students and their sighted peers. If a figure appears on the printed copy of a test, an assignment, or even practice sheets, now all teachers have to do is pull up their Wing It app, draw a copy, and instantly their blind or low vision students are given access to the same images with Monarch. “This puts exponentially more tactile graphics in the hands of blind or low vision kids,” said APH’s Technical Innovations Product Manager, Jason Martin. “We don’t see this as a replacement for traditional tactile graphics, but as a way to address a need when it comes up.” 

Paired for Opportunity

Outside of the classroom, Wing It has the capacity to be an orientation and mobility tool for students in early education, transition ages, and adults adapting to independent living. Wing It has an “infinite canvas” meaning there are no size constraints as to how expansive the drawings can be. Paired with the support for multiple levels of zoom on Monarch, there is no limit to what can be drawn. Wing It makes it possible to view maps of classrooms, campus buildings, stoves, hallways, and more. From campus maps, to live drawings of football plays during the game, Wing It breaks the barrier of what is possible to tactilely represent in real time. Field testers found the app “transformative” to daily routines. Teachers found that it changes the way that they approach tactilely connecting their students to the rest of the classroom. 

Using low frequency Bluetooth connections cut down on the technical process of pairing a Monarch and iOS device, as both devices will automatically connect when Bluetooth is on and the devices are nearby. This eliminates the concern for connectivity jams in high traffic areas where multiple devices and Wi-Fi connections may be at play, such as a classroom or public setting.   

Wing It released this week at the NFB conference. “We’ve been working to have this ready for the school year, because we know how important Wing It will be in classrooms. We expect updates to come, but we can’t wait to get it into the hands of students,” said Martin. Currently, Wing It supports braille labeling on iOS, as well as uncontracted grade 1 UEB braille. Updates to expand the supported braille code are expected with future updates.  

We are beyond excited to see the drawings, games, and more that students and users create with Wing It. View the Wing It product page and download the app in the iOS store now!