Reach & Match is a unique concept that has gained global recognition in education, inclusion and design. The research behind Reach & Match was developed by Mandy Lau’s master’s research and which has received the Monash University Vice-Chancellor’s Social Inclusion Design Award, and later it has won over ten prestigious design awards worldwide. The Reach & Match Learning Kit has exhibited worldwide, including the United Nations ECOSOC Innovation Fair in Geneva, the Design Museum of Barcelona and Red Dot Design Museum in Singapore.
In 2019, Reach & Match won the OpenIDEO Education in Emergency Global Challenge, and its outstanding project outcome has received an endorsement from the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Former United Nations Secretary-General Bam Ki-moon was reviewing the Reach & Match Learning Kit at the UN ECOSOC Innovation Fair.
Source: UN Information Service 2011
Awards
Partners
Media
Seven winners of the MIKTA Education in Emergencies Challenge
These organizations will receive a share of AUD $2 million from the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Innovators will have one-on-one access to expertise to help them develop and implement their ideas, through a human-centered design lens, reinventing the way to provide education in emergencies. Additionally, we will invite a larger group of select Challenge participants to join a 6-month virtual accelerator to support their ongoing development…
– OpenIDEO
Pilot project for “Reach & Match Inclusive” learning kit here
October 10, 2017
SAVE the Children and Red Cross have participated in the first ever training on the Reach & Match Learning Kit, an innovative educational kit that empowers children with special needs and facilitates an inclusive learning environment.
Mandy Lau | Australian of the Day
November 7, 2016
Mandy Lau has always loved working with children. She also has a passion for solving social problems. So it only made sense that the Masters Graduate in Industrial Design fused her two loves into something truly revolutionary.
Reach & Match: Learning through Listening, Touching and Collaborating
January 14, 2015
Projects pop-up on peoples radars in various ways. Sometimes information about a person or project comes from many different sources all at once. This was the case for Mandy Lau and her award-winning project, Reach & Match. The project helps visually impaired and autistic children develop their senses, social skills and literacy.
– Moa Dickmark (PDF)
Reach and Match Kit offers new opportunities
September 5, 2014
VisAbility recently purchased the award-winning Reach & Match Learning Kit, and clients and staff from Children and Youth services are enjoying its benefits.
Designed by Mandy Lau, the learning kit is an initiative that empowers children with special needs and facilitates an all inclusive education setting.
Suitable for children with and without vision impairment, the Reach & Match Learning Kit includes braille and print forms to develop literacy, as well as assisting essential childhood skills such as cognitive, motor, and social and communication skills.
– VisAbility (PDF)
Technology helping those with disabilities
September 5, 2013
A night floundering in the dark inspired Monash University industrial design masters graduate Mandy Lau to create her Braille learning toy: sensory two-sided puzzle pieces imprinted with the Braille alphabet.
The Dialogue in the Dark event in Hong Kong is part of a global initiative that invites sighted people to perform basic tasks in complete darkness.
”I couldn’t even do simple tasks,” Lau says.
Engineering up good ideas for children
September 18, 2012
With women accounting for less than 10% of working engineers in Australia, recent engineering graduate Mandy Lau wonders if young women today appreciate just how creative and rewarding an engineering degree can be.
– Women’s Agenda (PDF)
Mandy Shuk-Man Lau wanted to design a toy for blind children
September 5, 2012
GLOBAL declines in braille competency prompted Mandy Shuk-Man Lau to design the Reach and Match educational toy for vision-impaired pre-schoolers as part of her masters in industrial design at Monash University last year.
“Reading” for the blind has dropped off steeply since children with sight problems were integrated into mainstream schools, hastened by the advent of talking computers, electronic books and books on tape.
Ms Lau says there are also fewer teachers of braille, and a range of disincentives for tackling it, including that it is difficult to learn and that braille typewriters are cumbersome and noisy.
“I wanted to design a toy for blind children because I understand the global decline of braille is a problem,” Ms Lau said.
Core77 Design Awards 2012: Reach & Match, Student Notable for Social Impact and Strategy & Research
September 1, 2012
Reach & Match is a Braille learning toy for visually impaired children with multi-disabilities to have an interesting exposure to Braille literacy and functional skills learning for independence. The design aims to bring dignity, comfort, support and a quality of life experience for visually impaired children to enjoy equal rights and opportunity.
– C77DA Program (PDF)
Designer’s play mat a touching story
May 10, 2011
A Monash industrial design student has developed an interactive play set which helps visually impaired children learn the basics of Braille and develop their motor skills.
Concerned by the lack of educational toys for visually impaired children, Lau Shuk Man created the Reach and Match play mats as part of a project for her Masters degree.
– Monash University (PDF)
