Blind Lego lover convinced company to make accessible instructions

By Ben Barry via SWNS

Meet the man who convinced Lego to make accessible instructions after years of struggling to play with the toy.

Matthew Shifrin, who is blind, worked with the Danish giant to launch guides for visually-impaired people.

The 26-year-old said Lego instructions can contain too many pictures and diagrams for some users.

And, when family friend Lilya Finkel made him simpler instructions, he realized there was scope to help others.

The pair then combined to make more than 40 manuals. before she died in 2017, aged 52.

Matthew, from Boston, is now carrying on her legacy.

And he even got Lego to sign up for his plans - who said they were "inspired" by Matthew's story.

Matthew's instructions include step-by-step, describing every blueprint and providing the names of every piece.

These can be downloaded for free onto computers as text files or Word documents.

The files can be transferred onto a Braille computer or can be read out loud using a screen reader.

He said: "When I was at school, I would have friends who were experts in Lego and would be building all the time.

"They would tell me that they've built a castle and then I would ask them how they did it and they would tell me that they just looked at the instructions.

"It was an interesting case as I knew that the ability to build Lego was beyond me.

"I could combine pieces in obvious ways but playing with the more creative sets became difficult without guided help.

"My parents and I would build sets together and that was the only way to understand how pieces connected."

But, on the morning of his 13th birthday, Lilya showed up at Matthew's house with custom-made instructions for a Lego build.

He said: "It was really revolutionary.

"It was a fantastic moment this is something that I never thought I would be able to do because the task of translating visual instructions into text seemed so daunting.

"I didn't think it would be possible, Lilya had helped make many things very accessible to me over the years.

"The wonderful thing about these instructions was they would not only tell you what pieces to put where but they would signpost to let you know what was being built next."

From that day, Matthew and Lilya worked together to make Lego more accessible to people.

The pair have created over 40 instruction manuals for the blind.

Sadly, Lilya died from cancer six years ago.

But Matthew wanted to carry on her legacy and continue to create instructions.

He said: "When she died I decided that I didn't want the instructions to die with her

"I went to Lego's project division and I pitched the instructions to the head of that division.

"He was very excited and said he had never thought about how blind people build Lego.

"His enthusiasm was amazing, he was willing to do it and they did it.

"2019 was when they launched their instructions."

Denis Lauritsen, senior communications manager at Lego, said: “Inspired by Matthew Shifrin’s story and his creative talent and entrepreneurial spirit, Lego Audio and Braille Building Instructions give children with vision impairment the same opportunity to experience the joy of building and pride of creation as sighted children when building and playing with Lego sets.

"We are committed to continuously making Lego play experiences more inclusive and ensure all children can benefit from the Lego System in Play, as the basic need to learn through play is fundamental to the further development and wellbeing of all children."

Matthews's instructions are available for free on his website 'Lego for the Blind', where people can download the instructions as a text file or word document and transfer the file onto their computer.

Matthew added that Lego sets act as miniature substitutes for real life buildings for the blind community and it allows him to see things that are impossible to explore.

He said: "As a blind person there are parts of the world that are not very touchable to you.

"But if you are able to build these landmarks out of Lego then you are able to act as part of the world that was never designed to be accessible for you."

Matthew said the largest Lego he has built is Tower Bridge in London, which has 4,200 pieces.