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National Organization on Disability

Matthew Shifrin

Accessibility Innovator, Countertenor & Composer, Social Entrepreneur

Matthew standing in front of a seated group of people, whose arms are outstretched holding Legos

About Matthew Shifrin

Matthew Shifrin was born blind in Newton, Massachusetts, and grew up loving LEGO sets he couldn’t fully build on his own. At 13, a family friend named Lilya Finkel changed everything by writing him braille-based instructions for a LEGO palace — giving him the ability to build independently for the first time. When Finkel passed away, Matthew honored her memory by transforming that act of love into a movement. In 2023, he founded Bricks for the Blind, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has created free, accessible text-based instructions for more than 540 LEGO sets — reaching over 3,000 builders across the U.S. and as far as Australia. His advocacy directly influenced the LEGO Group to launch audio and braille instructions in 2019. Matthew leads a volunteer team of 30 sighted writers and blind testers, runs workshops at the Perkins School for the Blind, and has built an educational LEGO STEM curriculum for visually impaired children. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from New England Conservatory, is a trained countertenor, playwright, and multilingual creator — and brings the same inventiveness to the stage that he brings to every brick he builds.

Speaking Topics

Included by not limited to:

  • One Brick at a Time: What Inclusion Really Looks Like: Using the story of Bricks for the Blind, Matthew shows audiences what genuine accessibility looks like when it is built from lived experience rather than policy. He challenges organizations to move from compliance to creativity, and from accommodation to belonging.
  • The Innovation Hidden in Constraint: Blindness did not stop Matthew from building LEGO sets — it forced him to find a better way. This talk explores how constraints, limitations, and lived difference can be the most powerful drivers of creative problem-solving, and what that means for teams and leaders.
  • Grief, Gratitude, and Getting to Work: Bricks for the Blind was born from loss. Matthew shares the story of Lilya Finkel and how honoring someone you love can become a life’s mission. This talk blends personal narrative with a practical message about purpose-driven entrepreneurship.
  • Building a World That Works for Everyone: A practical and inspiring keynote on the business and moral case for disability inclusion. Matthew draws on his experience pushing a global company to change its product design, building a community from scratch, and proving that accessibility is good for everyone — not just the people who need it.
  • What Blind Builders Taught Me About the World: When a blind child builds a Lego car, they discover for the first time that cars have windshields. Matthew shares what happens when people long excluded from an experience are finally given access — and why the takeaways go far beyond LEGO.

Featured Press

Request to Book a Speaking Engagement with Matthew

play_circle_filledAugmenting The Power Of Language | Matthew Shifrin | TEDxNatick
play_circle_filledLego for the Blind | Matthew Shifrin | TEDxSuffolkUniversity