Flip-Pics: A New Way for Blind Readers to Feel Complex Images

National Braille Press awarded its 2026 Louis Braille Touch of Genius Prize to Ann Cunningham for Flip-pics, a teaching method that turns complex images into layered tactile graphics. The prize comes with $10,000.

Flip-pics works by separating visual information into physical layers stacked in sequence. A blind reader starts at the back layer, adds each subsequent layer to build the image – perspective in a landscape, elevation on a map, the arc of a graph, the structure of a chemical formula. The design follows linear perspective principles, letting the user assemble the visual concept in stages rather than confronting a dense tactile mess.

Cunningham, an author and artist based in Golden, Colorado, began teaching tactile art at the Colorado Center for the Blind in 1999. Her tactile installations appear in public art across the U.S. and Canada. She is a founding member of the Tactile Art Collective and co-owner of Sensation Books, which makes the Sensational BlackBoard.

“With Flip-pics, my goal has been to make complex visual information easier to access by organizing it into meaningful layers that encourage exploration,” Cunningham said in the announcement.