Legos are one children’s toy that never seems to go out of style. Now, the company is introducing a new line of Legos to help blind and visually impaired children learn Braille.
They’re called Lego Braille Bricks. There are 250 bricks in five colors, and each brick represents a Braille letter, number, or math symbol. With these Legos, children can learn Braille through play.
The bricks are fully compatible with regular Lego bricks, and they also include printed letters and numbers. So, they can easily be used by both blind and seeing children or caregivers.
We’re super excited to introduce LEGO Braille Bricks – a new product from @TheLegoFoundation that will help blind and visually impaired children learn Braille in a playful and inclusive way! pic.twitter.com/48cqYEZ54t
— LEGO (@LEGO_Group) April 24, 2019
The Lego Foundation is currently piloting the product; they’re developing prototypes in collaboration with blind associations from the UK, Denmark, Norway, and Brazil, including the Royal National Institute of Blind People in the UK.
Lego plans to release the final products in 2020. They’ll be provided for free to select institutions around the world. Also, they’ll be available in several different languages.
The series of dots on each brick represents a different letter of the Braille alphabet, the numbers zero through nine, and a handful of math symbols…
The young people we worked with loved them, as did the teachers. pic.twitter.com/oiugjmDrOI
— ollie cole (@ProducerOllie) April 24, 2019
“Thanks to this innovation, children with vision impairment will be able to learn braille and interact with their friends and classmates in a fun way, using play to encourage creativity while learning to read and write,” said David Clarke, Director of Services at the Royal National Institute of Blind People.
