
Lego Launches Braille Bricks for Children to Learn Braille - tosh
https://design-milk.com/lego-launches-braille-bricks-for-children-to-learn-braille/
======
samuraiseoul
The real take away here is that only 10% of children who are visually impaired
or blind learn braille. Additionally upon looking up that stat cause I figured
surely it must be sensationalized, 50% of blind students dropout of school and
over 70% are unemployed. A lot of it seems to stem from illiteracy. What a
fucking outrage.

Edit: I had the the percentages backwards, 70% are unemployed and 50% drop
out, not the other way around as I had written.

Information taken from
[https://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/documents/pdf/braille_literac...](https://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/documents/pdf/braille_literacy_report_web.pdf)

~~~
miki123211
Blind person here, though not living in the US. I don't know the exact stats
about unemployment here, but, from my observations, they're pretty similar.
Most kids do know braille, though. I think that nowadays, braille doesn't help
much, as only blind people can use it anyway. Literacy isn't as important for
blind people as for the sighted, as they can't use braille to communicate with
the rest of society anyway. I generally consider braille not that useful,
except in certain narrow contexts. Beware that this is a personal opinion, and
braille versus speech is almost as hot in the blind community as static versus
dynamic typing with software developers. I don't really use braille daily
(except for math drawings, as I'm still in education). I consider technology
to be much, much more important now. Computers have probably been the most
revolutionary thing when blind people are concerned. Communicating with the
sighted, reading books that haven't been specially prepared, access to
services etc. Also programming is one of the most accessible jobs out there,
as code is just text that can be read aloud by a program, and most tools are
CLI-based or have CLI-based alternatives. I think money would be better spend
on teaching people on how to use the internet effectively instead of teaching
them braille. Braille is a tool whose existence blind people should be aware
of, as it may be useful, but it lost its relevance.

When it comes to unemployment, I don't see how braille could help here. Half
of the problem is employer bias, actual obstacles that are hard/impossible to
overcome or artifical obstacles (inaccessible software) also matter. I think
that solving the bias problem would make the situation much better, though.
One more problem I see, at least here, is education. Blind people aren't
really that aware of what they can realistically do, so they get majors in
art, history, literature etc, or think they can get by without good education.
No one tells them where to go to have a real chance of finding a job. Sighted
people also do it, but, if nothing else works out, they can get a job at
Wallmart/Mcdonald's. Blind people don't have that possibility.

~~~
mavhc
As a random observer I always thought that a linear text based OS would be
good for blind people, basically what the CLI is but with more metadata, a
tree structure so things not of interest could be skipped, eg a long list of
filenames. A CLI with folding.

~~~
miki123211
Actually GUIs or websites, if done right, can be way better than anything that
is text based. They include much more semantic information that a screen
reader can use. For example, on websites, we have special shortcut keys to
i.e. jump to next heading, table, landmark etc. We can even navigate within
tables. This makes using most web/electron/chromium apps pretty easy. Most
blind people prefer traditional win32 guis, but I actually don't. Problems
arise when semantic information isn't provided, as in a web developer making
the text whatever color is fashionable now and adding an onClick instead of
using <button>. I don't see how a text-based OS would be different from that.

~~~
mwcampbell
Can you expand on why you don't prefer traditional Win32 GUIs?

~~~
miki123211
Web UIs can be used with my screen reader's search functionality and quick
navigation keys. For example, in Spotify, which uses a web UI, I can do
ctrl+ins+f, type rock, press enter and I'm focused on the Rock playlist.
Similarly, in Skype, I can search for "audio call" etc. Some elements can also
be reached pretty quickly with navigation keys. I think it's much easier to
screw up a win32 gui than a web app. The non-web paets of Itunes are a good
example. They're accessible, but all objects need to be reached by pressing
tab, and there's a lot of objects. There's no semantic structure and no way to
provide one. A website-like document would work better in this case.

------
skadamat
Speaking of LEGO, I went to the Alcatraz tour in SF and they had an amazing
lego mural on the floor consisting of the faces of important civil
disobedience activists.

It was done by Ay Weiwei remotely from his home in China (he's under house
arrest).

Not the same one, but similar:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2dzAdK1s3E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2dzAdK1s3E)

~~~
flyGuyOnTheSly
Ai Weiwei has been happily living in Germany since 2015, FYI! [0]

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ai_Weiwei#Release](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ai_Weiwei#Release)

~~~
kabes
He's living in Cambridge now. I read an interview last year where he talked
about moving out of Germany since it was 'no longer open to other cultures'.
Strangely enough his plan at the time was to move to the USA during Trump
administration. Looks like he decided to move to another country under a
nationalist/protectionist government to find his openness towards other
cultures...

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HeWhoLurksLate
That's really cool! I would have _never_ thought of that.

Relatedly, someone made a Braille printing robot out of a Lego one a while
ago, too, and apparently went even further-
[https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/01/20/braille-
lego-...](https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/01/20/braille-lego-
printer/22055135/)

~~~
tosh
Right? I love how great of a match Braille is w/ Lego. I can see how as child
this would have been quite a rabbit hole for me.

~~~
journalctl
If this had existed when I was a kid, I definitely would know Braille right
now. I’m considering getting a book and learning now.

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ylbss
I've always wondered why Braille is in the sequence it is. I would expect an
almost binary counting style sequence looking at it, but it always seems so
randomized. Why does A have one dot, B a dot below A but C has the orientation
of the dots changed? I'm sure there is a practical reason to not have C be
three dots in a line but I'm not sure what it is.

~~~
jes5199
the first ten characters are, as far as I know, arbitrary, but the following
ten are the first ten plus one dot. Then the rest of the alphabet is the first
ten plus two dots

~~~
ylbss
Ah, see I assumed there was 'some' pattern. Its interesting that it doesn't
seem more deliberate. Why groups of 10 for 26 letters? Maybe the random
pattern at the beginning is for better differentiation of symbols?

~~~
slfnflctd
It seems to me that it was designed with children in mind. Get them to
memorize the first 10 letters of the alphabet (one for each finger) with
drills. After that, it's easy to repeat the pattern for the next 10, and the
last 6 are a breeze. I expect it would work equally well for alphabets with
different numbers of characters.

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danielnixon
I heard an interesting critique of this from Liz Jackson at Webstock this year
[0] [1] [2].

> Unfortunately there are two problems with this ad. First, by relying on text
> without including visual descriptions, LEGO made their announcement
> inaccessible to the very people these bricks are intended for. Second, this
> product already exists.

> LEGO could have partnered with Tack-Tiles, which currently retail for around
> $700, to make an affordable and commercially viable product. But instead,
> LEGO decided that Braille Bricks will be provided for free to selected
> institutions around the world. That LEGO Braille Bricks will be given
> charitably through their foundation, demonstrates how disabled people, as
> consumers, are consistently devalued so brands can achieve higher status. If
> you think about it, LEGO isn’t informing consumers about a new product that
> can be purchased. The ad can’t even be experienced by the very people these
> bricks are intended for. LEGO was virtue signaling.

[0] [https://www.webstock.org.nz/19/speakers/liz-
jackson/](https://www.webstock.org.nz/19/speakers/liz-jackson/)

[1]
[https://twitter.com/elizejackson/status/1121463716309098497](https://twitter.com/elizejackson/status/1121463716309098497)

[2] [https://www.criticalaxis.org/critique/lego-braille-
bricks/](https://www.criticalaxis.org/critique/lego-braille-bricks/)

~~~
IIAOPSW
If a company virtue signals, and something actually virtuous happens in the
process (blind kids getting the bricks), does it matter that it happened for
selfish brand related reasons?

~~~
yesco
I feel what it really effects is the "signal" itself. Using myself as an
example:

If Lego had done this properly, it would have come off as more genuine and
would have made me respect the company more. I had believed that Lego was
investing into a legitimate product that would have also been beneficial for
society.

Given the information the prior poster shared though, I now view it as the
company dumping money on the PR team in exchange for better public perception
rather than real societal benefit out of goodwill. I have less respect for
Lego now despite the virtuous side-effects, because I feel I was purposely
misled about their intentions.

Sure, blind kids got some bricks they otherwise wouldn't have had, there is a
net positive to society, but to answer your question:

> does it matter that it happened for selfish brand related reasons?

If the goal of that company was to make themselves _not_ appear selfish, then
yes, in the end it does matter.

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ryanmercer
Forget children, I'd love to learn Braille and I'm an AFOL!

Edit: bummer, 'expected in 2020'
[https://www.legobraillebricks.com/](https://www.legobraillebricks.com/)

 _sets calendar reminders_

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wyxuan
This could seem like an easy way to get more people interested in braille, and
also help them write. Now they need typewriters, or special indentation tools
(in order to write), but this seems a lot easier, faster, and more fun.

