FamilyConnect

We’re talking Easter egg decorating—but not your standard boiled eggs dipped in food coloring—accessible, tactile designing! While our finished products can still look creative and beautiful, our main aim is for them to be tactually interesting. We also want them to be enjoyable to create.

Determined to create simple, elegant eggs which would be interesting to tactually explore, I thought about decorating brown eggs with feathers. And what could be more beautiful, tactile, and in context to eggs than feathers?! If you’d like to embellish eggs with attractive (and clean!) feathers, take my lead!

I enthusiastically ordered ethically sourced and cleaned pheasant feathers on Etsy for just a few dollars. I also ordered edible glue (typically used in cake decorating) because I wanted to safely eat the decorated, hard-boiled eggs.

After hard-boiling eggs and allowing them to cool, my daughters and I simply adhered the delicate feathers to the eggs. Voila!

If you don’t want to order feathers, consider the following tactile decorations.

You can wrap items around hard-boiled or plastic eggs:

• Wikki stix
• Pipe cleaners
• Yarn of varying textures

You can adhere items on hard-boiled or plastic eggs:

• Craft feathers
• Felt shapes
• Tactile stickers
• Beads
• Pompoms
• Tissue paper bits
• Leaves or petals

I like the idea of using real eggs because they help children grasp the concept of eggs; plastic eggs don’t have the same weight or texture as chicken eggs. Additionally, decorating with real feathers helps develop the concepts of feathers and birds.

Whichever items you choose for embellishment, arrange your items on a defined work station—a rimmed cookie sheet can work well. Remember to utilize task lighting and color contrast if helpful for your child.

For additional Easter-related activities:

• Plan a beeping Easter egg hunt for your child who is blind or visually impaired.
• Using a plastic Easter egg as a mold, make egg-shaped bird treats for your winged visitors.
• Make “bird’s nest cookies” for a special treat

To help you consider how to make all of your Easter activities accessible, read Including Your Child Who is Blind or Visually Impaired in Easter Traditions.

Happy Easter!