A CITY residential school and college for young people aged 11 to 19-years-old who are blind or visually impaired has been learning through play as part a revolutionary, global project with the LEGO Foundation and LEGO Group.
Students at New College Worcester have played their part in the LEGO Braille Bricks project, a concept which was first proposed in 2011 and since then has been further shaped in close collaboration with the college along with other blind associations from Denmark, Brazil and Norway.
With a dedicated Braille department and expanded core curriculum, New College Worcester jumped at the opportunity to test the prototype and show the potential of learning with LEGO Braille Bricks in the classroom.
Susan Lock, head of mathematics at New College Worcester, said: “The ability to read and understand Braille can be life-changing for many of our students and can present very many opportunities, which is why we were so thrilled to be involved in the project.
I’m passionate about both the Braille Bricks and teaching at NCW because we have the opportunity to transform children’s lives. LEGO Braille Bricks is doing that because it is making subjects far more accessible than they ever were before,” she added.
LEGO Braille Bricks will be moulded with the same number of studs used for individual letters and numbers in the Braille alphabet, while remaining fully compatible with the LEGO system.
The product is currently being tested in Danish, Norwegian, English and Portuguese, while German, Spanish and French will be tested later in 2019.
The final LEGO Braille Bricks kit is expected to launch in 2020 and will be distributed free of charge to select institutions through participating partner networks.
It will contain approximately 250 LEGO Braille Bricks covering the full alphabet, numbers 0-9, select math symbols and inspiration for teaching and interactive games.
