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NEWTON, Mass. (AP) — Matthew Shifrin said he learned what Lego-building could be for him only after receiving a binder of accessible, braille instructions when he was 13, allowing him to complete a set without depending on the bright pictures included with most Lego instructions. Shifrin, who is blind, described the change as the first time he could build on his own and remain in control of the building process.

After a family friend and babysitter later died, Shifrin sought to honor her by expanding access. He began fine-tuning the instructions the two had posted online so other blind Lego builders could use them, and about three years ago he launched Bricks for the Blind, a nonprofit that makes instructions available for free on its website.

Bricks for the Blind now works with a team of 30 sighted writers and blind testers, led by Shifrin, to create and distribute accessible instructions. The nonprofit’s website says the instructions can be printed in braille, used with braille computers, or read through screen readers that convert text into speech. The site also notes that a sighted person might be needed at times to sort Lego bricks.

The nonprofit says its instructions have reached more builders through use of apps that identify bricks using artificial intelligence, in addition to braille-based options. Bricks for the Blind has created instructions for more than 540 Lego sets, ranging from a 100-piece car to a 4,000-piece bridge, and it says about 3,000 builders have used the instructions across the United States and in Australia.

Shifrin also approached the Denmark-based Lego Group in 2017 about making products more accessible. He said the outreach helped inspire Lego to create audio and braille instructions for more Lego sets, a rollout that launched in 2019. The company has also introduced Lego Braille Bricks that feature studs tied to letters, numbers and symbols, and it has added characters in some sets with vision loss.

Shifrin said he has received messages from people who now can participate in Lego building without the same level of help they previously relied on. He described hearing from grandparents who are blind and said they can now build with their grandkids, even when the children initially did not want their help. Shifrin also said he heard from blind parents whose children did not want assistance at first but now allow them to guide the building process.

Other builders described similar independence through Bricks for the Blind instructions. Daniel Millan, who lost his sight in 2024 after a tumor crushed his optic nerves, said he completed a Lego ornament set and later, on an anniversary, built a Lego rose set with his wife. Millan described building independently as “freedom,” saying his sudden vision loss had made him wonder what he would not be able to do again—before Lego instructions changed what he could do.

Natalie Charbonneau, who is blind, said the instructions allow her to complete sets without relying on her sighted husband. She said she can also engage with her 5-year-old son—building fire trucks and other vehicles with her child rather than telling him to wait for his dad or to ask him for help. Charbonneau, a doctoral student and a tester for Bricks for the Blind, lives in Bellingham, Washington.

For educators, the project offers access beyond individual households. Teri Turgeon, education director for community programs at Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts—where Shifrin went as a baby—said accessible instructions allow blind children to experience the same pleasure as their sighted peers. She said the approach also helps children develop “fine motor and tactile skills.”

Turgeon said Shifrin has created “a space around innovation and accessibility that was otherwise not there prior,” and she pointed to the fact that Lego is a toy many children play with every day. “He’s created a space around innovation and accessibility that was otherwise not there prior and he’s done so with a toy that children play with every day,” Turgeon said.

In Shifrin’s home, he continued that accessibility work during the visit, helping a fellow blind builder, Minh Ha, assemble a go-kart. Shifrin spoke as Ha picked Lego bricks from bowls and began building a driver figurine, and Ha responded to his prompts as she assembled the pieces. Ha said her experience reflected a journey that began two years earlier when she built a lotus flower and, more broadly, said many blind people had been left out of a cultural and childhood phenomenon centered on building, play and shared satisfaction with intricate builds.