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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Michael Casey

How a blind man made it possible for others with low vision to build Lego sets

Legos Building Blind - (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Like a lot of young children, Matthew Shifrin loved building Lego sets. But because he was blind, Shifrin had to rely on friends and family to help him complete his creations — sometimes bribing them with tea to get them to come by his house.

That all changed when he was 13. A family friend and babysitter came over to his house in Newton, Massachusetts and handed him a binder filled with accessible instructions for building a Middle Eastern palace. The instructions, written in braille, allowed him to complete the set without having to rely on the brightly colored pictures that typically come with Lego sets.

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