Best of BrickNerd — Article originally published January 4, 2022.

To mark World Braille Day, today we are going to get hands-on with LEGO Braille Bricks. These bricks have been quite elusive to LEGO collectors and MOC builders alike since they are have only been made available to those that really need them, that being “select schools and services catering to the education of children with visual impairment.” Until recently, that is. But more about that later.

What Are LEGO Braille Bricks?

The LEGO Foundation and the LEGO Group announced the official launch of LEGO Braille Bricks in 2019. According to LEGO:

“LEGO Braille Bricks introduces a fun and engaging way to help children with vision impairment develop tactile skills and learn the braille system. The bricks are moulded so that the studs on top reflect individual letters and numbers in the Braille alphabet while remaining fully compatible with the LEGO System in Play. The bricks also feature printed letters, numbers and symbols so that they can be used simultaneously by sighted peers, classmates and teachers in a collaborative and inclusive way.”

New Elementary has a fantastic write-up of when the bricks were first introduced. They discuss the production considerations, bold colors, and test molds created before they were released. Since then, the bricks have been used in countless classrooms and learning environments helping raise awareness and teach Braille.

Learning Braille

The main goal of the bricks is to provide a fun and playful way to learn braille, and LEGO has compiled a plethora of online activities to make learning fun. With or without Braille Bricks, many of the activities are still possible to peruse online. You could even build your own Braille Bricks using two 2x4 plates and then plates and tiles corresponding to each letter.

Here’s the entire alphabet if you want to give it a try:

We even made our logo out of Braille Bricks to show what a homemade set may look like.

The LEGO Foundation has also launched an entire online course to help educators learn how to teach with Braille Bricks that you can watch—and learn Braille along the way. “Learning Through Play with LEGO Braille Bricks” is a multi-week course with an in-depth syllabus encouraging learning through having fun.

Play Well

Speaking of having fun, every year The LEGO Group has an internal event for employees known as Play Day where they encourage employees to play, have fun, goof off, and have a genuinely good time—usually involving LEGO bricks somehow. Last year, according to fellow BrickNerd Will Hafner, they brought something new to the table: Braille Bricks!

Every employee was given a set of eight Braille Bricks, an 8x8 plate and two slopes. The Play Day facilitator instructed employees to wear blindfolds and taught them how to build the slogan “Play Well” using their newly acquired Braille Bricks. (The name LEGO is an abbreviation of the two Danish words “leg godt” meaning “play well”.) Piece by piece, they explained what studs to feel for, and how to orient them on the plate. After completing the task, they were told were to put the slopes on the back, to make a rudimentary stand for the model.

The point of the activity was to demonstrate not only how to learn Braille but also to show employees how someone with a vision impairment could still build with LEGO bricks, although in a slightly different way. It was an activity about learning something through play!

This also means that Braille Bricks may become more widely available for collectors (especially the letters A, E, L, P, W and Y), though you should really build your own alphabet and then try out some of the activities from The LEGO Foundation. You just might learn something new!

Will you build your own LEGO Braille Bricks? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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