Lego is to sell bricks coded with braille to help blind and partially sighted children learn to read the touch-based alphabet.
The Guardian reported that the Danish toymaker has been providing the specialist bricks, which were tested and developed in partnership with blind organisations around the world, free of charge to a selection of schools and services catering for vision-impaired children since 2020.
Shoppers will now be able to buy packs of the bricks, which have studs corresponding to the braille version of numbers and letters with a printed version of the symbol or letter below, to use at home.
Lego hopes the initiative will help parents and siblings share in learning braille, and the packs will include ideas for a range of educational games that families can play together.
The newspaper reported that although modern technology can turn written text into spoken word, blind adults say they like the freedom to multitask by reading with their fingers while listening to other things.
It added that the European Blind Union (EBU) says knowledge of braille leads to improved spelling, reading and writing, contributing to higher levels of education and better employment opportunities for those who are vision impaired.
Dave Williams, an inclusive design ambassador for the RNIB, said knowledge of braille helped give those who could not read print independence.
He told The Guardian: “Who would want a greetings card read to you? And there are things like board games, labels and being able to read your kids a bedtime story – that’s hard to do with a computer talking in your ear.”
The packs aimed at children aged six and over will be available to buy in six English-speaking countries including the UK, Ireland, the US and Australia, and five French-speaking countries including Belgium, Canada and Switzerland. Italian, German and Spanish versions are expected to launch next year.
Each pack, which will cost £79.99 in the UK and be sold online, includes 287 bricks in five colours – white, yellow, green, red and blue. All bricks are fully compatible with other Lego kit.
Rasmus Løgstrup, the Lego Group lead designer on braille bricks, said the company had been “inundated with thousands of requests to make the bricks more widely available”.
He said: “We know this is a strong platform for social inclusion and can’t wait to see families get creative and have fun playing with braille together.”
