LEGO® Braille Bricks
Two children playing with LEGO® Braille Bricks
Children use play to explore the world around them and learn in a number of different ways. LEGO® Braille Bricks is a playful tool to teach braille to children with vision impairment, tested and developed by the LEGO Foundation in collaboration with RNIB. It is widely available within education establishments, from local authorities in the UK, and in online shops.
We developed a toolkit to promote the use of bricks as an educational tool; it comprises of LEGO bricks that have been adjusted to correspond to the Unified English Braille alphabet. Each LEGO brick also has a printed letter or character to ensure the tool is inclusive allowing sighted teachers, students and family members to play on equal terms with a child with vision impairment.
A selection of signature LEGO brick colours has been chosen specifically to ensure colour contrast and allow for a playful learning experience in an inclusive setting.
The toolkit is accompanied by a teaching concept that builds on a learning through play approach, including ideas for socially interactive activities with the bricks.
The aim is for children to start to use touch to identify different dot combinations and learn braille in a fun way.
How to order LEGO Braille Bricks
Professionals
Toolkits and sets of bricks for use in schools can be ordered, free of charge, by heads of service from local sensory services. To order, email [email protected]
Families
Additionally, from September 2023, LEGO® Braille Bricks will be publicly available to purchase online for the first time through LEGO.com.
Dave Williams, RNIB’s Inclusive Design Ambassador, said: “We’re thrilled LEGO Braille Bricks are now available to everyone who wants to own them. When RNIB and the LEGO Foundation brought the Braille Bricks learning kits to UK classrooms in 2020, we heard from families keen to get their hands on their own Lego Braille Bricks at home. Now you can. Every family with a blind or partially sighted parent, or child with vision impairment, can share this incredible fun and playful way of building braille literacy leading to greater independence and opportunity.
“As well as enabling blind children and adults to read and write by touch, braille brings families together to play games, share bedtime stories, label gifts and greetings cards, access recipes and cooking ingredients, speak at family occasions and so much more. Lego Braille Bricks show how learning braille can be a fun, positive and empowering journey shared by all the family.”
Visit the official LEGO Braille Bricks website.
Testing and development
In the UK, RNIB, and other partners in the sector, including Leonard Cheshire and New College Worcester, have worked closely with the LEGO Foundation to develop the LEGO Braille Bricks toolkits. New College Worcester has used the LEGO toolkits in its school, and RNIB and Leonard Cheshire worked with Linden Lodge and Priestly Smith schools as well as a variety of teachers around the country to test the toolkits too.
At RNIB, we have engaged with specialist education professionals throughout the development of the LEGO Braille Bricks and the associated lesson plans.
Further information
Find more about the toolkits, activities and facilitating learning through play online at the official LEGO Braille Bricks website.
If you have further questions, comments, and feedback, please email [email protected].
