Newton, Massachusetts– Like many young children, Matthew Shifrin loved building Lego sets. But because he was blind, Shiffrin had to rely on friends and family to help him complete his creations, sometimes bribing them with tea to persuade them to come to his house.
That all changed when he was thirteen. A family friend and babysitter came to his home in Newton, Massachusetts, and gave him a binder full of accessible instructions for building a palace in the Middle East. The instructions, written in Braille, allowed him to complete the set without having to rely on the brightly colored pictures that usually came with it Lego sets.
“This was the first time I was able to build a Lego set on my own,” Shiffrin said at home, surrounded by sets he has built including a Statue of Liberty statue and NASA’s Apollo Saturn V rocket. “It was a truly amazing experience because I had complete control over the entire building process. I knew where the pieces went and I was able to learn about the world around me.”
After Shiffrin’s babysitter died, he wanted to honor her memory. So, he began adjusting instructions the two posted online to reach other blind construction workers.
Three years ago, Shiffrin launched the “Bricks for the Blind” project. The 28-year-old now works with a team of 30 sighted writers and blind testers. His website makes downloadable instructions freely available to anyone who is blind or visually impaired. They can either print out step-by-step instructions in Braille, use computers with Braille, or resort to screen readers, which are software applications that convert text into speech.
The instructions allow a blind person to build themselves, but Shifrin’s website also says a sighted person may be needed to sort lego bricks. Otherwise, a blind builder can turn to one of the many apps that identify bricks using artificial intelligence.
To date, the nonprofit has created instructions for more than 540 Lego sets, ranging from a 100-piece car to a 4,000-piece bridge. About 3,000 construction workers have used their instructions across the United States and as far away as Australia.
Shifrin also approached Denmark-based Lego Group in 2017 about making its products more accessible, inspiring the company to create audio and Braille instructions for a growing number of Lego sets. Which started in 2019.
Separately, the company also introduced Lego Braille bricks in 2020, which are available in French, English and Spanish, and feature buttons on the bricks that correspond to letters, numbers and symbols. She also introduced several characters into her sets with blindness.
Schifrin, who is also an actor, composer and opera singer, said he has received letters from many people who haven’t been able to build a Lego yet.
He has heard from blind grandparents that they are now able to build with their grandchildren. “We couldn’t build with our kids. They didn’t want to help us, but now we can teach our grandchildren to play Lego,” Shiffrin said. “Or blind parents who say, ‘My kids are sighted, and they don’t want to help me, but it’s amazing that I really understand what all the fuss about Lego is because now I can build for myself.’
Daniel Milan, who lost his sight in 2024, turned to Bricks for the Blind after the tumor crushed his optic nerves. The 31-year-old master’s student from San Diego, who is studying to become a technology teaching assistant, completed his first Lego set. Then on his anniversary, he completed a Lego Rose set with his wife.
“Being able to do it independently, it’s freedom,” he said, adding that the sudden loss of his sight made him wonder what he would never be able to do again.
But after building Lego sets, he quickly learned that “it’s not about what I can’t do anymore. It’s more about what I can do.”
As for Nathalie Charbonneau, who is blind, the instructions allowed her to complete the sets without relying on her sighted husband. It also allowed her to spend quality time with her 5-year-old son — and build several fire engines and other vehicles.
“If he has questions, I have the ability to check his work or follow up with him instead of saying, ‘You have to wait for your father’ or ‘You have to ask your father.’ It’s something I can now do with him, too, which is empowering,” she said. Charbonneau, Brick Lab for the Blind, is a doctoral student who lives in Bellingham, Washington.
Accessible instruction allows blind children to experience the same fun as their sighted peers, said Terri Turgeon, director of education for community programs at Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts — where Shifrin went as a child. It also helps them visualize a wider world and develop “fine motor and tactile skills.”
“He created a space around innovation and accessibility that didn’t exist before, and he did it with a toy that kids play with every day,” she said.
Back home, Shiffrin helped fellow blind builder Minh Ha build a go-kart. Ha grabbed Lego pieces and components from two containers and first began assembling a statue of the driver.
“It’s just legs, a torso, a head and a helmet. I’ve built this before. It’s a piece of cake. I believe in you,” Shiffrin told her.
“Awesome,” she said with a smile. “Okay, I’ll put the helmet on the head. And then…put the legs on the body.”
She recalled her journey that began two years ago when she built the lotus flower.
“A lot of blind people have been excluded from this cultural phenomenon and childhood phenomenon of being able to build and play with Legos,” Ha said. “There is something very satisfying and also comforting about being able to put together these very complex, very beautiful, architecturally complex buildings.”