Surprised by Accessibility: Lego Ramps

[EmekaUlor]

As part of our advocacy, #OneAccessibility we will share information about differently able and profile one location with accessible trails. Look out every week for this enlightening post.

Caption: Collage of photo showing samples of Lego ramps in Germany (Photo by Rita Ebel with permission)

Legos are sets of popular brick toys for children and enthusiasts around the world. They minifigures and bricks are used to create so many things.

LEGO Ramps
One surprising thing I saw recently was the making of mobile wheelchair ramps with lego bricks. Across the world, many public places and private buildings do not have ramps which are accessible trails for seniors, pregnant women, children and people with disabilities. Lego is being used to close this gap especially in Europe.

Caption: Photo showing Rita rolling on a lego ramp into a shop with her wheelchair (Photo credit Rita Ebel)

LEGO Grandma
Rita Ebel also known as Lego Grandma is pushing the advocacy of removing barriers using Lego ramps for business entrances in her town Hanau, Germany. She has created several colourful lego ramps for many businesses for free and has become famous for her advocacy. Legos can be quite expensive but she receives donations and lego packs to support her campaign. Rita is on a mission to make her town more accessible, although, businesses in Europe and US also request for lego wheelchair ramps. Now, wheelchair users are able to move step-free into many shops in her town courtesy of lego ramps.

According to Science Focus, Lego is made of strong plastic polymer know as ABS which is strong enough to withstand pressure better than concrete blocks.

Lego is an abbreviation for two words in Dannish language “legbgodt” which means “play well”. So when you hear the word “LEGO” it means “Play Well.” Lego brand toys are manufactured by a Dannish company The Lego Group based in Billund, Denmark.

Caption: A sample of colorful lego ramp made by Rita in Germany. 

Have you seen LEGO ramps anywhere? Would you make LEGO ramp for your home or office? Here is a photo album showing Lego ramps made by Rita.

If you have a question, suggestion, or contribution, feel free to comment below. You can read last week’s roundup article here and check the list of our other articles under "Accessibility Uncovered".

[LuigiZ]

Hey @EmekaUlor ,

wow this is really surprising, never seen Lego used in that way but indeed a very funny but also super useful (and colorful) thing.

Thank you for sharing this with us, thinking at Lego I think @PaulPavlinovich will like this .

[EmekaUlor]

@LuigiZ you can say that again. Quite surprising and I had to choose this topic because of @PaulPavlinovich and I hope he does something similar for One Accessibility.

I don’t know if @Sashabg and @TraciC have seen a lego ramp!?

[MrFreez]

Thak you for sharing @EmekaUlor

These Lego ramps are so beautiful and colorful.

[EmekaUlor]

@MrFreez you are right. They are colorful and beautiful also expensive but inclusive.

[TusharSuradkar]

Deploying lego for creating ramps is both interesting, innovative, fun, and thought-provoking to raise awareness about the sensitivity towards the differently-abled. Thank you for sharing a wonderful story @EmekaUlor

[JordanSB]

This is amazing. What a cool way to promote accessibility and creativity, @EmekaUlor !

[Julien44]

I have never seen this before @EmekaUlor but I love this idea of lego ramps

It makes it cool and attractive for kids.

Our lego master might have heard about it @PaulPavlinovich

[EmekaUlor]

@TusharSuradkar You are absolutely right.

@JordanSB truly, they are cool.

@Julien44 I love it too. Want to see Paul replicate this.

[MrBest]

Thank you @EmekaUlor for sharing this piece with us. May God bless all the accessibility advocates like Rita.

[EmekaUlor]

@MrBest God bless you too. Thank you for your kind words.

[SP31]

This is SO COOL, @EmekaUlor - I’ve never seen ramps made out of Legos to allow businesses and other places to become accessible. Considering how much it hurts to step on a Lego, it only makes sense to use them for a cause like this .

[EmekaUlor]

@SP31 I just remembered that it actually hurts stepping on a lego

Well, rolling on it seems to make more people happy now!

[PaulPavlinovich]

I love the idea of this @EmekaUlor but from a practical standpoint, Legos is made of ABS which is a type of plastic that doesn’t handle UV light very well and it becomes brittle. People who own older Lego know how gentle you need to be with it.

What they would do, is highlight through the use of colour that this business or place doesn’t care much about accessibility but the community has solved it. I would expect that the managers of the place would be so embarrassed at being called out (even in such a fun way) that they may respond with a more permanent result themselves.

Paul

[MahabubMunna]

@EmekaUlor thanks a lot for sharing with us some creative accessible path.

People can represent everything different different way if they want one of the example is this.

[EmekaUlor]

@PaulPavlinovich thank you for the information. Really, the lego ramps are temporary and of course Rita is talking to the owners about accessibility. Legos won’t be there forever.

@MahabubMunna thank you too. You can say that again, people are creative in different ways.

[gandrabur_chik]

Wow! Such a colorful ramps! Hope to see such in my country.

Thank you @EmekaUlor for this enlightening post!

[PritishB]

Wow! thanks @EmekaUlor for sharing such an unknown tool for accessibility. I was not aware of this. This is really helpful to make the world accessible.

Have a great day!

[EmekaUlor]

@gandrabur_chik When you find one, do share with us. Thank you.

[EmekaUlor]

@PritishB glad you liked the post. Thank you for taking time to read through.