LEGO has announced a new play experience for kids who have visual impairment with the LEGO Audio & Braille Building Instructions. The initiative comes from 22 year old Matthew Shifrin, who is also visually impared, and it uses AI technology to give those with visual impairment more accessibility to building instructions.

The LEGO Group to pilot LEGO® Audio& Braille Instructions

Inspired by blind entrepreneur, Matthew Shifrin,the new building instructions will help children with vision impairment build and learn through play using LEGO bricks

Billund, Denmark August 28: What started as a kind gesture between friends living just outside Boston, US,is today being rolled out as a global pilot by the LEGO Group–using AI technology the initiative aims to make the LEGO play experience more accessible for those with vision impairment. We call it: LEGO® Audio& Braille Building Instructions.

The idea comes from Matthew Shifrin, who was born blind. As a child, he developed a strong passion for LEGO play. However, he always needed assistance when it came to specific LEGO building instructions.

“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”.

Shifrin would pore over his customized instructions to create models such as the LEGO Creator Expert Sydney Opera House and London Tower