Wing It: A Monarch Feature

On this episode of Change Makers learn about Wing It - a groundbreaking application for the Monarch and iOS devices that empowers users to create tactile graphics on the fly.

Wing It is available in the Apple store, search for "Monarch Wing It." The next episode of Change Makers will continue this discussion about programs and applications on the Monarch.

Additional Information (In Order of Appearance)

• Narrator
• Sara Brown, APH Public Relations Manager
• Jason Martin, APH  technical Innovations Product

Additional Links

• Making the Visual World Tactile with the Wing It App for Monarch
• Meet Monarch

Transcript

Narrator: 0:00

Welcome to Change Makers, 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 APH's Public Relations Manager, Sara Brown, and on today's episode, we are checking in with The Monarch. The next few Change Makers episodes will be focused on exciting features and programs on The Monarch, and today we're learning about a groundbreaking application for The Monarch that empowers users to create tactile graphics on the fly. I have APH's Jason Martin here to talk more about Wing It. Hello, Jason, and welcome to Changemakers.

Jason Martin: 0:46

Thanks, Sara. How are you?

Sara Brown: 0:47

I'm doing very well and happy to talk to you and excited to learn about Wing It. But before we get into that, let's get you to introduce yourself and let our listeners know what it is that you do at APH.

Jason Martin: 1:00

So I'm Jason Martin, as you said, and I'm a technical innovation product manager here at APH. And what that means is I get to look for the things that don't exist that hopefully can come to fruition as a product for the consumers out in the nation, basically, and bring a new incredible product that really doesn't exist. So that's kind of my goal is to find new things and bring them to APH.

Sara Brown: 1:29

So that's just like, you know, listening for, what is that, feedback and, you know, whispers in the field as, you know, what would be a good idea or this might be a good idea. And you literally bring that to fruition.

Jason Martin: 1:41

It's listening for the whispers. That's a good way of putting it. But it's also listening for those pain points where you hear, man, I wish we had this. This thing stinks. Why does this work this way? And it's really those that make me go, well, why does it have to? And one of the things we'll talk about today really came from that. Why does this have to work this way?

Sara Brown: 2:01

That is a true problem solver. You are a true problem solver. And speaking of solving problems, we have the Monarch, which is not only a game changer, but it is a problem solver too. Can you talk about what's new with the Monarch?

Jason Martin: 2:17

So we are always working heavily on the Monarch to make the latest updates. And so we're working on a new, bigger update, which is going to release the Braille Terminal mode. And I'm not the biggest expert on that, but Braille Terminal effectively brings speech screen reading software to the Monarch so that users will be able to use something like JAWS with their Monarch. And that is, it's big news in terms of where the Monarch is and where it's going. And that's just really one of the major software updates, not really the applications that we're going to talk about today. So that's more of what us and our partners, HumanWare, are working on the overall system. And so that terminal mode has been a big push for both APH and HumanWare to really to really kind of expand what the Monarch can do, what the Monarch can interact with, and ultimately who finds more value out of the Monarch. And so it's increasing that value of the device by increasing that functionality, by being able to use JAWS with a computer or just have more access.

Sara Brown: 3:26

So Terminal Mode pretty much just opens the floodgates to all sorts of possibilities...

Jason Martin: 3:32

It really does. It allows a person to basically connect to any of those world of devices to be able to interpret what a screen reader is reading from those devices in Braille on the Monarch. Right now, it's starting out in a very... Of course, all of this is new for screen reader communities, for those developing them, the UI, so the user interface, like how do we show multi-line Braille coming from JAWS? And so these are things that the big guys have been working on and been diligently trying to figure out these hard issues so that when it gets down to users, that it's more of a seamless kind of interface and it's something that they expect. But I can make no mistake, this is all incredibly new Uncharted territory.

Sara Brown: 4:25

Nothing we love better than new territory. Now talk more about Wing It and what that is. Is it an app? Is it a program? And how is it going to be on the Monarch?

Jason Martin: 4:37

Let's talk about Wing It. I love talking about Wing It. So when I talk about applications that we get to bring in or these new things that I get to find. So some of the listeners might be familiar with these two applications called Monarch Startup. If you've ever started up a Monarch, or the lovely Monarch Chess. These are two applications I've been working on since I started at APH about two years ago with my development team. Now, the other application that we started working on at the same time as Startup and Chess is Wing It, and Wing It has been It's an app that is transformative. It's an application for both Monarch and iOS devices. So it's a two-part application. And so you can see, as opposed to, say, Startup or Chess, that Wing It is a complex app. It's taken us quite a while to work on it and get it right. So what is it? Wing It is an application that allows a teacher... or anyone, and I'll get into that later, but for sake of our discussion, a teacher, to take their iOS device out and do a real tactile graphic drawing on their phone and instantly, and I snap my fingers, I don't know if the mic picked it up because it doesn't, it's instantly, that once that finger lifts off of the iPhone, the tactile representation is on the Monarch in real time. So again, it's kind of hard to say without seeing it, but a teacher draws something on their phone and then instantly it appears on the mark. And so in short, that's what Wing It is.

Sara Brown: 6:24

Walk through how a teacher or an educator can use wing it for the monarch.

Jason Martin: 6:30

So I'll give you a good example. Um, Currently in the classroom, this is, this is, this is how we approached the need for wing it at first in the classroom. And I was, I was thinking before we got on this discussion today, how to, how to frame this. So say I'm a teacher and we're talking about branding, all of the cool brands and logos we see all around the U S like, I mean, if you think about it in any given day, I mean, even in this phone call with you right now, I see probably three logos and not counting my desktop in front of me. There's a, logos out there. So if a teacher was planning a lesson with a blind student about branding, traditionally what they would do is they would have the examples that they were going to use in class. And I'm trying to very much avoid company brand names, but let's use the APH logo. That's an easy one for us to talk about. So say they need to have the APH logo. A tactile graphics artist would take that. They would make it into a readable uh, format. So they would minimalize the logo a little bit. They would make it easier to read with the fingers and make sense. And then when they take that logo back, they would emboss it and they would bring it back to the student. And you could see in prep work, that's fantastic. If you've got two weeks before the lesson, that's great. Maybe that teacher got all of that stuff for all of these logos beforehand, but say during the lesson, a, uh, And as a teacher myself, we do this all the time. We go, oh, well, logos, let's bring up this new APH logo that nobody's ever seen before. Let's talk about that. Or let's bring up a completely different company logo for comparison that I didn't think about two weeks ago. In that scenario, you've got a couple of options that a student can do. A, they can sit there and be left out, and that's the one we don't want, and go, oh, well, we didn't get this one, so just listen. That's a common one. Or we've got some pipe cleaners and a pegboard over here. We can kind of work out what this idea looks like. And really, it's 2025. This is still what teachers are doing today. And it sounds like back when I was in school or back before then. It just sounds like a dated technology to go, oh, we don't have it. We're going to use some wiki sticks or pipe cleaners or something else to show you this. So now, instead of all of that, with Wing It, it eliminates it. It goes, okay, well, here's a new APH logo. I'm looking at it on the screen. Okay, let me draw this for you real quick. And in the matter of really seconds or minutes, if it's a really detailed logo, in minutes, you can have that brought up to the student instantly. And the beautiful part about Wing It is, and I've given you this teacher and student scenario is that it really isn't limited to just that sect of people. If a student had a friend with an iPhone, a peer, they could draw as well, bring it right over. So it's just really, really decreasing that time. It takes a student to get equal access. So that's really what this is about is if a teacher showing something on the board, how can we get equal access to our students as quickly as possible? And we get that answer.

Sara Brown: 9:55

And is there anything like this on the market right now?

Jason Martin: 9:59

So like this? The answer is no. That does exactly what this does in the way that it does. No, there there are some things that try that are that are close, but no, no bang for the buck, I would say. So the way we get really sets itself apart. is it has significant tools that a tactile graphics artist would employ. So, for instance, our shapes have different shaders. You can braille label onto our shapes, which is very unique to our product. And you can basically have an infinite canvas. So when we're drawing in tactile graphics now, if you are on an 8x8, An eight by 14 sheet of paper or 11 by 14. I could be off with my measurements. But if you're on this limited amount of space, you can only draw so much within the space. Well, when you're doing it digitally, there is no limitation. The canvas is infinite. It's huge. So it allows us to draw things that we previously would have been confined to by print standards. although the application does take into account proper tactile graphic standards and things that need to be present in a tactile graphic. So it's easy to use, difficult to master, if that makes sense. So Wing It, a student could use Wing It to draw, and a tactile graphics artist could use it to draw even better, if that makes sense. So it's difficult. There is nothing out there that has that gamut of kind of specific skills or specific things that this tactile graphic program has.

Sara Brown: 11:43

And then why is an app like this so important for both students and educators?

Jason Martin: 11:51

So this app is really, I mean, the way I consider it is it's transformative. And, you know, sometimes we think we work on a project and it's like, it's going to change the world. And it's good, but it's not that. But with Wing It, this is truly a transformative way of taking out a process that we've been doing in the classroom today. since i can remember um and and taking this and really turning it on its head to be instant and and until we had something like the monarch this concept was not possible and so now having this multi-line display what this does is it will change the way teachers are getting students access it changes that the resources used as well so those pipe cleaners those wiki sticks those drawings that might not have come out right, that you've used paper on, all of those resources used to create tactile graphics on the fly go away. And so for For both getting really decreasing that time taken to develop tactile graphics, it's going to benefit students by giving them access early and help teachers by taking some of that workload away and making it simpler, making it more really accessible. And I mean that lesson more in the sense of anyone can access it and just get to it.

Sara Brown: 13:17

Talk about if Wing It can be used outside of the classroom, because we talk about the Monarch, we're talking about in the classroom, in an educational setting, but what about outside of an educational setting?

Jason Martin: 13:26

So this is one of my favorite questions from you, is can it be used outside of the classroom? And absolutely. The idea, and with one of my testings of Wing It very early on, I went to a convention and I was asking individuals just on the fly, hey, where's the restroom? I did. And in a big conference hall, anyone and I mean anyone would be pressed to know where the restroom is just right off the bat, especially if it's new. And so, like, say it's a it's a new employee coming into an unfamiliar environment. Say it's a professional employee coming into a place that they're unfamiliar with the ability to have a map that you could have very quickly develop. So say if I've got my office desk and. And I need to know a direct path to the meeting room or to the cafeteria or to the lunch or to the restrooms. Instead of asking someone explicitly to do that, I can get one type of graphic and save it. And then that way I know where I'm going to every time. And what's funny about that example is I have seen that in a past life and in previous careers where I had worked with an employee that he was a fantastic employee. He just got stuck when it came to navigating around. So like having a map is fantastic. Now that's, that's more of the workplace. And, uh, for college students, uh, looking at campus maps, devising routes to where you're going to go with that, you can draw campus maps with wing it very, very quickly. And it's not this overwhelming campus map. It's a very specific to what the student needs to know. It's not all this extra stuff. It's really catered to them. The other, the other example I love, and it's twofold, but my dad is, is totally blind. And I, you know, I use him as my guinea pig all the time for my projects that I'm working on. So wing it is no different. And so with him, he got a new stove, a very smart stove because every piece of electronic has to be a little smart. And. We went through the process of braille labeling some things. However, getting the eyes on the stove were a completely different layout than traditionally they had been. And it's not really conducive to put a braille label on a hot eye. So with Wing It, what I did was I drew kind of a tactile graphic of the entire stove's layout, including the buttons, the knobs, the eyes, and I saved it. And so anytime he's wanting to reference it or really to get to learn it, he used that graphic to learn it. And then he moved to the stove that arguably, you know, if you're competent with a stove, it's not dangerous, but stoves can be dangerous. So this is a way to kind of bring in a tactile element to something that's definitely not tactile. And this can work for just a number of different things, but, but I know a couple of teachers out in the field definitely used it for independent living training as well. Oh, and football, Sarah, I can't, I can't, that was the other two. So a football plays, um, When watching, you know, I'm from Alabama, so football is a very big thing here. War Eagle. Got to be clear on that one. So when you were showing football plays, I draw some X's and O's, and I would kind of keep that static. So I would save the X's and O's line up. And then I would just start drawing the plays. And once the play was over, I'd delete that section and then draw the next play. And it's minor, but it actually really added to the game somewhat for him to know like, well, where did they go? Where did they end up at? And you can hear that audibly, but to feel it tactically is kind of cool too.

Sara Brown: 17:06

Can you talk about how Wing It will work alongside tactile graphics and tactile graphics from our tactile graphics image library?

Jason Martin: 17:15

Yeah. So what I love about the tactile graphics image library is that and for those who are aren't familiar with it, you know, these are graphics that are stored in a database that anyone can access on the monarch. But they have been meticulously worked on by tactile graphics artists, meaning that. These are going to be excellent to read with your fingers tactically, that considerations and tactile graphic standards have went to develop these so that there is a standard that a student, when they get a map from the TGIL, or in the example I want to use, when they get a model of a cell from the TGIL, that somebody's been through that, it's been pre-approved, and it's a really good model. It's a really good tactile graphic. So when they pull up this graphic of the cell, You may have some bodies in the cell. It'd be this overall graphic. Now, the TGIL isn't limitless. So and I did not do my homework. So I know I'm going to say this and it's going to actually be in the TGIL. But so say we're having a lesson. We're looking at the body of a cell, like the parts of a cell. And the students inside it, they're using the tactile graphics image library, this great cell mockup. And it kind of gives them the overview of the cell, what parts are in it. But me as the nerdy science teacher, I'm going to pick my favorite cell part, the Golgi apparatus. And I searched the tactile graphics image library. And guess what? I don't have an image of the Golgi apparatus. So this is where Wing It would come in. I'd pop over to Wing It. I would give my best (Jason) try at developing the Golgi apparatus. And with the student I was working with, I would make a point to go. I know what I'm doing. I'm just winging it. It's not perfect. However, this is the idea of the layers of the Golgi apparatus. This is somewhat what we're looking at. And I'll be honest with you, when you do that, you'd be surprised at the quality and the kind of the educational materials you can impart on a student by just showing them some parts of the pieces that they weren't able to see before. Again, we're not going to rival a tactile graphics rendering, artist rendering of the Golgi apparatus, but what we are going to do is we're going to get pretty dang close and pretty quick as well to be able to show that to a student. So that's really how they would work in tandem. If you think of rocket ships or something like that, you might have a particular rocket ship over a raw model, but you want to show the thrusters. Maybe we don't have that in the TGIL. You can just pop over to WingIt and draw it.

Sara Brown: 19:56

So it's almost in my mind, it's like, it can, it's not perfect. It's going to get you there. And then you go to the tactile graphics image library and find the proper, you know, the, the proper type of graphic. And then there you go. But that'll help give, give a person an idea as to what you're referencing or, you know, something extremely detailed you can do, use wing it. And like I say, it'll get, get the idea across.

Jason Martin: 20:20

Well, I'll give you, I'll give you this one, Sara. And it's always funny with TGIL because we saw this with field testing students early on. with tactile graphics image library. We had kids that went, well, I want to see a car. And then you pull up a car and we'd have a car in the tactile graphics image library. And then they go, well, I want to see a 1979 Mustang. And you're like, well, we don't have that. I want to see the gas cap for the 1979 Mustang. Uh, we don't have that one either. And so like, this is where wing it comes in to where you're like, all right, you want to see a gas cap? Here you go. Here's my, my drawing of a gas cap that, and, and again, you know, depending you can get it pretty good. You can get a very close rendering. If you, you try, I think.

Sara Brown: 21:06

I think that's super cool. And if I, you know, I am not the best drawer illustrator. So, you know, like you say, if I'm trying to draw a gas cap, I can, I can get you there, but, you know, give you an idea as to what we're referencing, but that's super cool. Now, was this app developed with other partners? I know you mentioned human wear. Was this, was this app developed with any, any partners you want to mention?

Jason Martin: 21:30

So the Monarch itself was developed with Human Wear and then we love them. And they, they definitely have, have given me feedback on this app. But in terms of external partners, it's really been our team at APH. And I got to say, if I'm going to look at partners, it's the teachers getting their feedback, getting their responses from Wing It, because they're going to tell you exactly what works, what doesn't, why they love it and why they don't. So with this app, actually, it's been developed in-house through us. So not many partners other than just really those specific teachers that that are nerds about it we love we love you guys i gotta be honest i'm one too but it's the ones that are like wait have you considered adding this um option to this program and to make it better and they're always giving us feedback like that so yeah that's that's really it's just been an endeavor with with the students and

Sara Brown: 22:29

Yeah and that was speaking of which that made me think of a question if this was field tested and what's some of the feedback? You share great feedback, but was Wing It field tested?

Jason Martin: 22:39

Yes, Wing It has been field tested. It went live in April, I think. Yeah, everything seems to fly by a little bit. Yes, we had quite a few teachers field test and give us feedback. And basically in that field testing process, we rolled out Wing It in a way that sometimes when you're field testing, you have to deliver an application in a different way than you would say, when we launch it, you just go to the app store. So sometimes it's a little difficult to get things that way, to get through school IT systems. So with doing field test of applications, sometimes it can be a bit of a pain to get through it, but we did. And what we got from teachers was a series of improvements that we needed to do, things that worked well for them, and just all types of drawings, like I got campus maps. I've got science projects. I'm trying to think if I've got anything that's incredibly funny. A few pictures of dogs, but nothing that made me laugh outrageously, Sarah. I hate to say that. Although I'll give you this one. Once during a conference, I love playing Pictionary. And if you ever see APH at a conference where we're showing off wing it, come and see me. I will play Pictionary with you. And I had a girl who was about seven who asked me to draw a picture. And I was like, sure, this is going to be simple. And she asked me to draw Grandma. And grandma was standing right behind her. And you talked about how poorly you could draw a gas tank. I poorly, poorly draw grandma, but it was the idea of going through the effort and saying, this is the hair, this is the shoes that really started to make that student light up. So just in answer to your question with field test, we got a lot of changes that we needed to make and we've implemented those and are still in the process of doing some of that fine tuning, but we're very, very close to having everything they suggested to us done

Sara Brown: 24:37

Is there anything else you would like to share about Wing It before I let you go?

Jason Martin: 24:43

So, yeah, I would just want to say that that with Wing It, really, it it's an application that it's and I got to stick on this word that it really is. It's one of the most transformative things we've done for Monarch. What I like about it the most is that. A parent can use the wing it application to draw for their students at APH. We do a lot of targeted apps right or targeted products where this is a product design for a student. This is a product design for a teacher to use with a student with wing it. This is a product really. For everyone that interacts with a person who uses tactile graphics, it is a. Application that gives everyone that access. So my your nine year old pestering brother can draw you pictures of Pokemon. Now, if you want to see that your mom can show you a picture of a bird that she found on, you know, maybe out in the garden, something like that. It's giving everyone the ability to create and somewhat play. And so that idea of creation from parents to teachers to students, just that overwhelms me and it makes me know that the transformative impact of Wing It is going to be something to really behold.

Sara Brown: 26:04

All right, Jason, I am excited for Wing It and I can't wait to try it out myself. I just want to say thank you so much for taking time and talking to me on Change Makers.

Jason Martin: 26:15

Thank you, Sara.

Sara Brown: 26:17

And Wing It is available in the Apple Store. Look for Monarch Wing It. I have put links in the show notes for more information about Wing It. And just so you know, the next episode of Change Makers, we will continue this discussion about more programs and applications that are available on the Monarch. So the next episode, we're discussing science in the Periodic Table of the Elements. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Change Makers. And as always, be sure to look for ways you can be a changemaker this week.