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Comment by ryanmercer | Hacker News Reader

Hmmm, they'll have to start designing sets differently then. You'll often have the same element in more than one colour in a given set. Obviousl the colour won't matter to the person constructing it but to anyone viewing it, it certainly would.

Modified elements would probably need to be fairly descriptive:

- "place the 1x2 with the cylindrical protrusion"

- "place the 1x2 with the cylindrical depression".

- "place the 1x2 so that the rectangular textured masonry surface is facing out"

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Minor nit, but as a blind person who does various types of crafting (woodworking, most recently) I do care how things look. If I was building a lego set for fun only, I may not, care, but I wouldn't say it is "obvious" that I wouldn't.

Anyhow, only noted because I encounter that sentiment often enough to call it out. "You're blind, so obviously you don't care if you get the garrish hot purple cell phone, if you've got the laptop with the cracked screen, ..." :P

You should do an AMA here or on reddit. I think from a tech standpoint alone it could be a very interesting thread and certainly with hobbies like woodworking.

Even in the early nineties when my mother worked with a blind man I found the limited technological aids at the time quite interesting but haven't a clue what variety of output devices might exist now and even things like cooking, where visual queues can often be quite helpful in determining if something is done such as "cook until golden brown".

And things like media, what sort of descriptive content is out there. I remember reading an article that talked about porn hub having descriptive content, but what sort of stuff is out there as far as streaming sites, what might various industry think about adding etc.

I know more exotic and niche thing like MUDs, multi-user dungeons, have actually seen a lot of blind-friendly adaptations in recent years, but what about other things. It would be neat to, pardon the expression, peek into the day in the life of a blind tech person.

LEGO bricks are known for their very precise shapes (Only the best is good enough); I doubt they will ever change said shapes without good reason (a green 4x2 has no reason to be shaped differently than a red 4x2, and if they were, it would probably lead to minor visual defects that would be unacceptable).

However, an easy way to split by color would be to package bricks in different bags - as said bags have various shapes and textures as well. [0]

[0] https://www.brothers-brick.com/2018/04/16/lego-star-wars-752...

The instructions start by telling you to have a sighted person help you sort the pieces by color.

https://legoaudioinstructions.com/lego-11001-classic-mobile/

There has to be an app out there that can use the camera to tell you what color the object in front of it is. Though I can imagine it would take some time it would make it possible to do on your own.

... but... might as well just have them sit there and hand you the next piece. Hrmmm, oh well it's a start.

Sometimes it's about taking what you can get, even if the solution is only partial. As a blind woodworker, I can't route a pattern laid out on flimsy material, but make a wooden template and I'm fine. So for more complex projects, we'll have someone make us a template we can trace, but we're still doing most of the work.

Granted, I'd love a solution that doesn't require sighted help. For this case, some sort of color identifier app might help. Given that Lego's color palet probably doesn't span too widely, this would probably be an easy weekend project.

That's actually a good solution. Color detection is relatively easy, given it has been used for paint mixing for a long time.

The current lego pallet should still be at 51 colors, there might be issue with clear elements but for the most part they'll be significantly different than the other elements in a set being things like windows, windshields and cockpits. Also in a given set you are unlikely to have many, if any, of the same elements in similar shades that might get confused by an app.

The app would be useful for those that can see too just for listing elements on secondary markets like Brick Link.

It is far beyond my means but as an adult fan of lego I definitely see value in it.

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