Interlocking bricks help the blind and visually impaired read
Various entities put to test a concept that will help the visually impaired and blind to read. The project has been previously put to the test and now has passed to the second stage.
LEGO’s interlocking bricks are not only for creating your next colourful building display project on your living room floor.
These popular, brilliantly coloured construction blocks that foster creativity and an overactive imagination also assist blind and visually impaired children in reading. This is thanks to a groundbreaking project led by the LEGO Foundation in collaboration with the University of Cape Town (UCT), Disability in Education in Africa (IDEA) and BlindSA.
Blind and visually impaired children in South Africa will now be able to put it to the test. The expanded pilot began on March 5, at the Museum of Childhood.
The LEGO braille bricks (LBB) initiative is a fun technique for teaching Braille to youngsters who are blind or visually challenged.
Each multi-coloured brick has studs that correlate to numerals and letters in the Braille alphabet and a printed symbol or letter.
The concept seeks to level the playing field for sighted and blind children by allowing them to play and learn together.
The expanded pilot project will be trailed and assessed in four schools in the Western Cape and Gauteng.
If successful, this will accelerate inclusive education for blind and visually impaired students and strengthen teacher competencies across the country.
The concept of learning via play will also help teach and learn Braille reading in a fun and engaging manner.
According to the research officer of IDEA, Richard Vergunst, they believe this project offers tremendous promise in changing the future of inclusive education and building a more fair learning environment.
“We believe this project holds immense promise in shaping the future of inclusive education and fostering a more equitable learning environment.
“This launch event serves as an opportunity to share the innovative work that lies ahead and celebrate the commencement of an impactful journey,” said Vergunst.
Exciting initiative
The CEO of BlindSA, Jace Nair, stated that his organisation is eager about the second phase of the initiative and hopes to see its success and national scale-up in due course.
To ensure its success and permanence in the country, he stated that bringing the correct delegates on board to grasp the concept and its benefits for blind and visually impaired students is critical.
Nair requested members from the national and provincial departments of basic education and school management teams to participate in the discussion and gain a better knowledge of the LBB.
He also emphasised the importance of pushing for the buy-in of parents of blind and visually impaired students.
“Parents play a vital part in our children’s lives, and we must bring them on board to support this movement to include Braille literacy for young people.
“I believe we want to see it in all our schools across the country. We believe it provides a unique opportunity for us to fast-track inclusive education so that our children entering the foundation phase can attend mainstream schools and teachers be trained, allowing these children to integrate into mainstream schools at a young age. Having Braille and print on the LEGO bricks will facilitate that integration.” Nair said.
An expanding initiative
The LBB initiative was piloted in 2022 and carried out in collaboration with BlindSA, four schools, and 11 practitioners educated in the LBB concept.
Vergunst stated after the initial training session, practitioners had around two months to implement LBB in their classrooms.
According to the introduction, research showed that youngsters appreciated the notion, and practitioners saw it as a valuable tool in the South African context.
He stated the initial pilot initiative validated the participants’ interest and involvement while also paving the way for its expansion.
The next step propels the project forward and expands the initiative to include more teachers, auxiliary staff, and blind and visually impaired students across the country.
The 12-month program aims to implement a pilot practitioner training programme for the LBB concept, create and test a master trainer training approach, create a national plan to scale the project with stakeholders and create an evidence and learning framework to track system, practitioner, and child outcomes.
“The programme will focus on training teachers to use the LBB concept; monitoring and evaluating its roll-out, as well as the pros and cons through ongoing research; and depending on its success, scaling the project nationally,” Vergunst concluded.
