“What I really like about the glasses is the speed at which I get the information I need – instead of waiting for someone to read a letter or waiting for someone to tell me what I have in the fridge, I’ll just do it on impulse. Now I’m doing things for myself independently, that maybe before I wouldn’t have done.” — Brian Manning, Vision Ireland

Meta is donating 15,000 Ray-Ban Meta glasses to Vision Ireland, Ireland’s national sight loss charity. This is enough for every blind and visually impaired adult the charity supports – because we believe the Future is for Everyone.

Ray-Ban Meta glasses, built in collaboration with Europe’s EssilorLuxottica, are one of the fastest growing consumer products and we are making sure we are building them for everyone. People use our glasses because they’re genuinely helpful – from listening to music, to live translation and hands-free calls – and they can be life-changing for people who are blind or have low vision.

These glasses will give people who are blind or low vision in Ireland access to transformative AI technology that can help with everyday tasks like reading text, identifying objects and accessing information about the world around them.

Vision Ireland is Ireland’s national sight loss charity and earlier this year jointly hosted an AI glasses Demo Day at Meta Ireland HQ. Team members from Vision Ireland and advocates from across the blind and low vision community were given hands-on tutorials with Meta’s AI glasses, and took part in a roundtable discussion where demo participants shared their feedback on their experience using the glasses.