Israeli author and puzzle inventor Avi Rubinstein has designed a puzzle written in Braille that blind people can solve independently. Previously, if blind people in Israel wanted to solve a crossword puzzle, a sighted person would have to read it to them.

When Rubinstein took his idea to Uri Cohen, Director of the Central Library for the Blind, Cohen admits that he “thought it was another one of those weird ideas that we get. I knew that in order to solve a crossword puzzle you needed a pen.”

Immediately after publishing the first booklet of puzzles, Rubinstein was flooded with letters and compliments from blind crossword-solvers for whom his new puzzle provides hours of entertainment.

Rubinstein, who voluntarily composes original crossword puzzles for people with special needs as well as for a women’s prison magazine, is about to publish a unique educational series featuring puzzles that correspond to the Ministry of Education’s textbooks.