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The good and bad of the Meta Ray-Ban Glasses for people who are blind or have low vision

Meta’s newest wearable technology has a few aspects that are particularly useful to people who are blind or have low vision.  

The Meta Ray-Ban Glasses are fitted with a camera and speaker, and can give you feedback on what’s in front of you, read out a page or give you GPS directions hands-free.   

We asked some of our Clients what they liked and didn’t like about the new Meta Ray-Ban glasses. 

Here’s what they had to say: 

Veronica Levey:

The good: 

• I love the hands-free element.  

• It’s particularly useful for finding barcodes. 

The bad: 

• It can’t be used as a mobility aid.  

• It doesn’t tell you gender, it only says there are two people in front of me. It’s not helpful when you’re fully blind.  

• The Meta app isn’t as accessible as I’d like it to be. It’s hard to find voice settings etc. 

Pauline Cornell: 

The Good: 

• When you ask the right questions the feedback can be incredible. I used them in my garden and it told me the colour of the roses – pink and yellow. When you get a bit more information it’s quite thrilling. 

• The reading a page if you get the initial photo correct is incredible. If it’s too blurry or fuzzy it will tell you. 

The bad: 

• Doesn’t mention gender when you ask who’s in front of you.  

• Not enough information came with them. A manual or more direction on how to use them would be great.  

• It will give you the environment, but sometimes not enough detail. For example at the park, it said there was a pond but didn’t mention the ducks.  

• Battery life can drain quickly. Be sure to turn them off when you’re not using them.  

Lucy Carpenter: 

The good  

• The specifics: it can give you detail, like for instance, standing in front of a pantry it can differentiate between flours and tell you what shelf it’s on. 

• The voices are great, I had Judi Dench set as my assistant.  

• It takes the effort out of things – like going to a restaurant and taking a photo of a menu so I can zoom in. I can just ask, “What are my menu options?”

• It’s not a mobility tool, but it can be used in conjunction with them. I can have my Guide Dog and the glasses reading out directions from Google Maps.  

The bad 

• Accuracy can be less than optimal. You can’t 100 per cent rely on the information it’s giving you. 

• It can be difficult to get the object in frame and you have to be looking at the thing you want to describe – which can be hard when you can’t see.  

Here’s what popular Youtuber Sam from The Blind Life had to say on the glasses:

We’ve also got a list of prompts that can help you get started if you’ve got a pair of glasses. Read our useful prompts list here.  

For those wanting to participate in another Meta glasses workshop, you can email lukep@guidedogsvictoria.com.au to express your interest.