The life-changing magic of wearing smartglasses

Elle Hunt, who wore a pair of Ray-Ban Meta smartglasses for a month for a Guardian feature. Photograph: Ali Smith/The Guardian

I read with sympathy the concerns of Elle Hunt in relation to privacy issues around Meta smartglasses (I wore Meta’s smartglasses for a month – and it left me feeling like a creep, 1 April). Clearly there needs to be ongoing development of technology and protocols that protect the public from ill-intentioned users. As the chief executive of a charity supporting people with a visual impairment, however, I would like to emphasise the point touched upon in your article: how transformative this technology is already proving for blind people.

We are seeing significant numbers of our visually impaired staff and clients using Meta glasses in conjunction with their mobile phones to improve their ability to perform ordinary functions that most of us take for granted. A visual impairment can be disempowering and isolating. Having a tool that can read your bills to you, tell you when your bus is coming, make calls for you when your hands are full and read the cooking instructions on your dinner is offering a level of independence that many visually impaired people have lost.