Playing is a right and a means of inclusion

On Friday, February 19, 2021 – in proximity to National Braille Day, which is celebrated every year on the 21 of February – at Biblioteca Panizzi in Reggio Emilia took place the delivery ceremony of the first LEGO Braille Bricks kits, donated by The LEGO Foundation to Istituto Regionale Garibaldi per Ciechi e Ipovedenti, which promoted the initiative in the city.

The Lego Braille Bricks project is designed to foster the creative, playful and cognitive learning of blind and visually impaired children, but not only: on each brick, the six 'buttons' for assembling the pieces are arranged in such a way as to represent the letters and numbers of the Braille writing and reading code and, at the same time, the numbers and letters are also reproduced on each brick using the common typeface, so as to truly become an inclusive teaching aid for everyone.

"In this project, which by putting different alphabets in a relationship of play and reciprocity is designed not only for blind children, but for all, the sign of the friendship and collaboration between Reggio Emilia and Lego, which is more than 30 years long, is present - says Carla Rinaldi, President of Fondazione Reggio Children - The LEGO bricks are one of the universal tools with which children and adults from all over the world have combined their research to experience 'good playing', a way of playing that nourishes knowledge, capable of combining fun with discovery and learning. Playing is a right and one of the most inclusive of human activities. From these principles was born the alliance between Lego Foundation and Fondazione Reggio Children for the defence and development of the right to play, an alliance that finds a physical and ideal form in 'Scintillae', in which the Braille Bricks fully enter, and is substantiated in many other projects at the international level".