APH Tactile Shape Slate
The verdict
The Tactile Shape Slate works like a traditional braille slate, but instead of braille cells it stamps tactually identifiable point symbols: arrows, open circles, outline squares, raised bumps, and X-shapes. You place braille paper, tactile drawing film, or heavy-gauge aluminum diagramming foil in the slate, pick a symbol from the stencil plate, and press with the two-ended stylus.
APH Tactile Shape Slate — about $56 at APH · star rating unverified in our research · a hinged slate that lets you stamp raised symbols and shapes into tactile graphics by hand.
The result is a raised-line graphic you can read back with your fingers — a graph, a worksheet diagram, a map, or a game board.
This is a maker's tool, not a reader's tool: it is for the blind teacher, student, parent, or hobbyist who needs to produce tactile material rather than wait for someone else to emboss it. It covers the symbol set used across the school core curriculum — math, science, social studies — plus orientation-and-mobility and recreation uses like labeling and game layouts. The kit includes the slate, stylus, stencil plate, storage pouch, and print and braille instruction booklets, and APH offers the manual as a free accessible PDF and BRF download.
Specs
- Hinged slate in the style of a traditional braille slate
- Shape stencil plate with arrows, open circles, outline squares, raised bumps, X-shapes
- Works with braille paper, tactile drawing film, and aluminum diagramming foil
- Includes two-ended drawing stylus and storage pouch
- Print and braille instruction booklets; free PDF and BRF manual downloads
- Federal Quota eligible through APH
Honest caveats: this makes symbols and point markers, not full raised-line drawings — for freehand drawing you would pair it with APH's TactileDoodle or a line slate. It is a hand tool, so large graphics take patience. As of October 2026 APH lists it in stock and federal-quota eligible.
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Last reviewed: October 2026.