LEGO’s Braille Bricks will be more accessible on September 1, when they launch at retail for the first time. The special blocks, which have letters, symbols and numbers printed in braille and ink, are already available for pre-order on the Danish toyco’s website. 

The concept for the range was developed and tested in partnership with multiple blind organizations around the globe, according to LEGO. Targeting kids ages six and up, a core Play with Braille set features 287 pieces.

This move to expand the distribution of the Braille Bricks line is intended to appeal to kids who are interested in learning braille at home. LEGO will initially roll out English and French editions, with Italian, German and Spanish ones slated for next year.

Globally, nearly 1.4 million children under the age of 14 are blind, and another 22 million experience moderate to severe vision impairment, according to data collected by the VLEG-GBP Group in 2020. Braille literacy stats are scarce, but a 2009 report by the National Federation of the Blind suggested that it could have been as low as 10% of US children with blindness at that time.

LEGO’s Braille Bricks originally launched in 2020 in a very limited production run, which the LEGO Foundation distributed for free to organizations that specialize in teaching kids with visual impairments.

“We’ve [since] been inundated with thousands of requests to make them more widely available,” said lead designer Rasmus Løgstrup in a release. However, LEGO will also continue to distribute the sets free of charge to select institutions through partnerships with national blindness associations.

The 287-brick set features both braille and printed letters, numbers and symbols (Image courtesy: LEGO)