Blind Entrepreneur creates language-based instructions for LEGO construction toys

Matthew Shifrin is a blind entrepreneur who, with the help of his babysitter, has been creating language-based instructions to play with LEGO for blind kids since he was a teenager. After he launched his own website where he was sharing instructions, many parents reached out asking for more information. The interest from parents gave him the idea to approach the LEGO company and scale up the project.

“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,” Matthew explained.

The LEGO foundation worked with him and partnered with the Austrian research institute for artificial intelligence to scale up Matthew’s project. LEGO created braille and audio instructions to help children who are blind or visually impaired.

The Austrian institute used specially designed software to translate building instructions for the construction toys.

“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,” said Matthew. “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.”

The instructions are available in English, free of charge, on the LEGO audio instructions website. The goal for the future is to include more languages.

Adapted from: https://www.designboom.com/technology/lego-audio-and-braille-instruction...
More information: http://legofortheblind.com/about/
https://legoaudioinstructions.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcRXur_l1UA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcRXur_l1UA