Lego launches Braille Bricks to help blind children learn through play

By Milan Charles on Wednesday, April 24, 2019

In the hopes of making reading more fun and inclusive for visually impaired children, LEGO has announced that it is launching Braille Bricks.

The Danish toy company has reimagined the iconic building blocks to have numbers and letters on them in Braille so children with and without sight can play and learn at the same time.

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

Braille Bricks have been piloted in a number of UK schools, and will hopefully be introduced to more schools and blindness charities from next year. Each set will contain 250 bricks, including the alphabet, numbers and mathematical symbols.

Morten Bonde, LEGO Group Senior Art Director, who has a genetic eye disorder himself led the project. He said “Experiencing reactions from both students and teachers to LEGO Braille Bricks has been hugely inspirational and reminded me that the only limitations I will meet in life are those I create in my mind.”

The Braille Bricks are currently being tested in Danish, Norwegian, English and Portuguese, before being tested in German, Spanish and French later this year.

John Goodwin, CEO of the LEGO Foundation, said: “With this project, we are bringing a playful and inclusive approach to learning Braille to children.”