LEGO®: A Brand for Every Ability
LEGO®…doesn’t the mere mention of that name bring back fond childhood memories? How many of you can remember playing for endless hours with LEGO® sets? I do. In fact, I still enjoy putting a LEGO® set together with my children or using our imaginations to come up with our own creations.
The LEGO® group was founded in Denmark in 1932, and is still going strong today. Their products are sold in more than 140 countries. Its name is derived from two Danish words, LEg GOdt, which means “Play Well”, and “Play Well” is what children and adults alike do. According to the LEGO® Group’s website, their mission “is to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow through the power of play. The LEGO® system in Play, with its foundation in LEGO® bricks, allows children and fans to build and rebuild anything they can imagine.”
Let’s consider how to build a LEGO® set. First, the box must be opened and the pieces sorted. Next, the instruction booklet is pulled out and opened to page 1. Lastly, we follow the pictures in the instruction booklet and build. One thing that is imperative to building a LEGO® set is that you must be able to “see” the pictures in the instruction booklet. That’s easy for those of us that have our vision, but what about those people who have a vision impairment?
For Matthew Shifrin that was his reality. Born blind, Matthew developed a love for LEGO® play at a young age. However, when it came to the building instructions, he needed help. “I had a friend, Lilya, who would write down all the building steps for me so that I could upload them into a system that allowed me to read the building steps on a Braille reader through my fingers. She learned Braille to engage with me and support my LEGO® passion, and then spent countless hours translating LEGO® instructions into Braille.” – Matthew Shifrin. Through this endeavor, Matthew successfully built the LEGO® Creator Expert Sydney Opera House (2,989 pieces) and the London Tower Bridge (4,287 pieces) on his own, without assistance from someone steering him through the instructions. “This is extremely important for blind children because there aren’t a lot of places where we can say, ‘Look Mom and Dad! I built this on my own… I did this. For blind children, we don’t have access to what sighted kids are used to. LEGO® bricks enable us to learn about our environment, to see the world. It is so important because blind kids get left out of a lot of social stuff, especially in elementary school. But LEGO® building is one of the things we can do.” – Matthew Shifrin
After Matthew’s friend passed away, he wanted to do something to pay tribute to her memory (memorialize her) so others would be aware of LEGO® building instructions for the vision impaired. By way of another friend, he was introduced to the Creative Play Lab at the LEGO® Group. This group took his idea to the Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI) who created new AI software to translate the visual building instructions to text based descriptions for Braille and voice commanded instructions. “Matthew’s story demonstrates the power of LEGO® play. It brings people together, helps to build confidence and sparks creativity. It has been an honour to work with Matthew, his passion and energy are truly inspiring. But most importantly his project will help visually impaired children around the world experience the same joy of building and pride of creation that all our fans feel”, says Fenella Blaize Charity, Creative Director, LEGO® Group.
LEGO® has recently began a pilot program, LEGO® Audio & Braille Building Instructions, which includes four sets…LEGO® Bricks and Ideas LEGO® Classic, LEGO® Friends Emma’s Art Shop, LEGO® City Sky Police Drone Chase, and The LEGO® Movie 2TM Emmet and Benny’s ‘Build and Fix’ Workshop!. You can either choose to hear the audio instructions using a screen reader or with audio provided by the LEGO® Group, or you can choose to read the instructions using a Braille reader. The pilot program runs August 2019 through December 2019 and hopes to add more audio and Braille instructions in the first half of 2020. This pilot program began four months after LEGO® Braille Bricks were announced – to aid children with vision impairment to learn Braille in a fun and inclusive way.
I talk a lot about children in this post, but adults can enjoy building a LEGO® set just as much. They, too, can gain the same thing out of the build as a child does. What about the people we support? How can they benefit from the LEGO® Audio & Braille Building Instructions? For those who are vision impaired, this is the perfect opportunity to provide them with more independence. It gives them the chance to “see” and experience different things and places through their fingers. It can be used as an activity for a person who is on the Autism spectrum and likes to use their hands to build things. It can be used as a quiet, self-directed activity for someone who needs to de-escalate. It can be an activity to build a person’s self-esteem, providing them with a sense of accomplishment by doing something on their own.
I think Matthew Shifrin said it best. “As I build a set I develop a better sense of what a building looks like and how it is laid out and constructed. For blind people LEGO® sets act as miniature 3D substitutes for real-life buildings in lieu of two-dimensional photographs. LEGO® bricks allow me to see things that are impossible to explore by touch, such as the arches of a Middle Eastern palace or the towers of the London Tower Bridge.
I would like to get my instructions out to the blind community. I would like every blind person to be able to download the instructions, buy a set, have a sighted person sort the pieces, and feel on par with a sighted builder. I want every blind person to feel that the once impossible is now possible; that he or she can now build a miniature LEGO® world.”
Even though Matthew’s statement refers to the vision impaired, I feel like we can apply this philosophy to the people we support too.
For more information on the LEGO® Audio & Braille Building Instructions pilot program, you can visit the following sites: https://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/news/2019/august/the-lego-group-to-pilot-lego-audio-braille-instructions, https://www.today.com/parents/lego-s-playsets-are-now-accessible-people-who-are-blind-t161519, and http://legofortheblind.com/.
