Did you know that the number of legally blind people who can read Braille keeps going down? In the ’50s, more than 50% of blind users could read Braille. Now, that number is down to less than 10%. In recent years, many blind children with visual impairment are encouraged to read books with large prints, but this technique works mainly with picture books. Kids with no vision at all are encouraged to start listening to audiobooks, thus skipping the process of teaching them to read altogether. However, the argument against audiobooks for blind children is that if audiobooks are considered so good for a blind child, why teach any child how to read? Audiobooks may be convenient, but they are by no means a replacement of reading pages of a book. 

 

In order to teach Braille to blind children, Dorina Nowill Foundation for the Blind and the Lew’Lara Advertising Agency have created a set of Lego style Braille bricks that have raised studs resembling letters of the Braille alphabet. Blind children can arrange them in certain ways to spell out words. Through Braille Bricks, not only are children learning Braille, but also fueling their creativity and imagination while connecting with their peers.

 

300 sets of these Braille Bricks have been created and provided to various Braille literacy programs. However, the design for these Braille Bricks have been released under the Creative Commons license so anyone could download it and create these bricks for their own use.

 

Watch the video below to know more about Braille Bricks.

 

 

Source: Mother Nature Network, Adweek