Building Wings FAQs

While Don Johnston Incorporated and the accessibility tools business (including Snap&Read™, Co:Writer®, Word Bank™, Quizbot® and uPAR™) are joining the Texthelp Group, our curriculum team is forming a new company called Building Wings to address the unique needs of special education teachers and students with autism and other complex needs. Building Wings brings together two widely-respected and adopted special education resources—Readtopia and First Author. This will allow each product group to better specialize and innovate, and ultimately, make stronger products that better help our customers and students!

What is Building Wings?

Why are you separating the product lines?

Our curriculum product lines had very different needs from assistive tools. We already had different teams for development, sales, and customer support and now there is more dedicated focus behind each product line. Ultimately, we hope there will be some really positive things that come out of this focus that will directly impact educators and students.

What does Building Wings mean?

We chose the name Building Wings because it represents the relationship between teacher and student. It’s our mission to create special education teaching resources that help both teachers and their students experience the joy of learning and to take flight together.

Will my main points of contact at the company change?

All employees on the curriculum division of Don Johnston will become Building Wings employees, and you will continue working with the same representative that you always have.

Is Don still going to be involved in Don Johnston Inc.?

Yes! Don will continue to be involved in both businesses—as the CEO of Building Wings and a board member and investor of Texthelp.

What happens to my product licenses to Readtopia?

It will get even more amazing! By focusing the team’s attention on curriculum and adding additional resources, we’re planning to expand and bring even more value to special ed classrooms across North America. In the meantime, we’re working hard to make the transition as smooth and transparent as possible. Our goal is that you don’t have any interruptions and you can continue using Readtopia in the same way you always have (at myreadtopia.com). If you’re in a district with strict whitelisting, you may need to whitelist buildingwings.com and buildingwings.net.

How do I get support?

All of the resources will remain at donjohnston.com until the website migrates to buildingwings.com. Feel free to use the resources there, work with your current representative, or call us at 847.238.8889.

If I have a license to both curriculum and tools products from Don Johnston where should I send my payment?

You can send your payment to the Don Johnston Inc. office (26799 W. Commerce Dr. Volo, IL 60073). In the future, you’ll likely see your invoices split between Building Wings and Texthelp/Don Johnston Inc.