Play is a great way to learn

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This story was written by Thanakorn (Gunn) Vajirakachorn about the work of his youth organisation, Between The Roots.

Between The Roots (BTR) is continuing to advocate for sustainability, this time in Bangkok.

BTR has partnered with the Educational Technology Centre for the Blind to supply visually impaired children with materials that they can play with.

Chanidapa Petruk, the director at the Centre for the Blind, told us how scarce interactive resources are for visually impaired children and was immensely grateful for any opportunities that provide the visually impaired with more of these resources.

Thus, BTR designed Braille Dominos, which can be used to lessen exclusion and allow both sighted and visually impaired kids to play together. This is because the braille dominos contain both the braille alphabet and the English alphabet, so both groups of children can use these dominos to play, and the visually impaired will feel less excluded.

Moreover, these braille dominos also help the environment. They are made using 3D printers because of their fast speed and ability to create a durable product. The 3D printer creates products by dispensing filament that is then melted into shape. This is where the environmental friendliness comes in: the filaments BTR used were made from used plastic bottles that were melted and reshaped into a thin string that can fit into the 3D printer.

After creating the braille dominoes, BTR was happy with how the children reacted to their new resource. They enthusiastically felt the letters and started to guess the English alphabet that corresponded with the braille alphabet and had lots of fun together.