At the OCCS, our work providing dispute resolution services to both optical professionals and the general public means that we are exposed to many new ideas and technologies within the optics industry. In today’s blog post we share a story about how the LEGO Foundation and LEGO Group teamed up with blind associations to pilot LEGO® Braille Bricks and develop children’s skills.
The LEGO foundation, formed in 1986, seeks to transform attitudes and behaviours about learning and play across society. The Foundation works with parents, carers, schools systems, institutions and governments, with a focus on children aged 0-12, and a special emphasis on early childhood where children develop most rapidly, both physically and mentally.
The LEGO Foundation's model leverages three approaches
- Identify and support programmes as examples of play that works;
- Build and share evidence to explain the value of play; and
- Communicate to gain buy-in about how children best learn for life.
Motivated and inspired by stories and ideas from blind people across the world, the LEGO Foundation and LEGO Group will pilot a new innovation that can help blind and visually impaired children learn through play using LEGO® bricks.
Announcing their support for a pioneering project that will help blind and visually impaired children learn Braille in a playful and engaging way using Braille customised LEGO® bricks. The project, LEGO Braille Bricks, was announced at the unveiled at the Sustainable Brands Conference in Paris in May.
The concept behind LEGO Braille Bricks was first proposed to the LEGO Foundation in 2011 by the Danish Association of the Blind and again in 2017 by the Brazilian-based Dorina Nowill Foundation for the Blind. It has since been further shaped in close collaboration among blind associations from Denmark, Brazil, UK, and Norway and the first prototypes are now in those same countries for concept testing.
More information about the LEGO braille blocks initiative can be found on the official site