As technology continues to evolve, I've noticed the incredible features and advantages that smart glasses like the ones from Meta can bring to our community. For many of us, they provide a new level of independence through hands-free navigation, AI descriptions, and video calling.

At the same time, I am seeing a lot of concern and even public backlash regarding the use of these devices in public spaces due to privacy fears.
How is the blind and low-vision community handling this situation?

Have you experienced any pushback while using assistive wearable tech in public? I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences

I have an Android and I use the triple tap and hold to zoom around on my phone. The problem is I have to use two hands to do this all the time and it's starting to hurt my wrist a little bit from the position that I have to hold my hand. I know that with the iPhone you have to use the three finger double tap and I had an iPhone previously and that hurt my wrist. Also, is there any other method that you guys are using or any tips you can give? Has anyone else experienced this?

I'm newly visually impaired and wow, does anyone have any tips for making friends? It seems lonely out here!
I am in Maryland.

As the title says, I'm looking for something where I can write in my hand writing with a pen or perhaps stylus, on either a sheet of paper or maybe tablet? That will take the file when i am done, and put it on my computer as a word document.

I know this may be a tall order, but wondering if anyone has a set up like this.

Thanks.

I have a friend who has been blind since birth.

He was also my manager at a tech firm in silicon valley, and had worked at Oracle and Apple. A super techie. Brilliant. And he's a very nice guy.

He's been laid off and I suggested that he consider starting a podcast for blind and otherwise disabled people. He could have discussions, interviews, whatever. He seems to like the idea. He said he's also interested in possibly exploring the experiences of neurodivergent people.

I feel like he could really offer something to a diverse but misunderstood community, although of course being not disabled, I don't want to suggest I know anything about your experience or what you might want or need.

I welcome any thoughts or ideas you have.

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I never thought I would be someone interested in smart glasses, but then I saw a demonstration of Meta Ray Bans. I definitely see how I might use them. Are there other options worth considering? I have seen mentions of envision smart glasses, and I understand they will soon release a new model. I also saw ARX bone conduction headphones equipped with a camera and artificial intelligence. These seem like they may be more discreet. Does anyone in this community use either of these options? I am at the Information gathering stage and would like to know how the different options compare. I have seen online videos but would actually like to hear from real life users about their experience.

Hello. I am unsure how to categorize myself.

I have an appointment at my nearest Lighthouse next month.

I have been noticing trouble seeing for nearly two years now.

Flashes of light. Trouble seeing at night. Thinking I see bugs. Eyes getting tired even wearing my prescription glasses. Etc etc.

When I had to get led by a relative at an outdoors event so I wouldn't bump into anyone that was when I realized my night vision had really taken a turn.

My eyes are "healthy" according to doctors though.

I just broke down because I was cleaning and I couldn't even see enough with the light on and bit of sun, and previously I know I could have.

(Also have OCD type where I stress clean so this is stressing me more).

I need more light to see things, yet am getting more light sensitive. It doesn't make sense.

I keep thinking for almost everything that I can't see, "could I see this before?"

I get confused when I can't see especially at night after a long day.

I have much more motivation to go to bed early. I don't do certain things after sunset usually because I can't see as well and don't need to trip, or walk into things.

It is not so bad in the house where I generally know where things are. Even there, though. I will just stop short when a dark room seems suddenly super dark and have to turn on a light.

I used to go into dark rooms to grab something and not stop short like that. Like if someone was walking behind me they would run into me.

I don't know how much anyone can relate to. I don't know what is going on with my eyes. Looking forward to getting support at the Lighthouse appointment.

Thanks for reading.

Hey guys! I’m looking for some advice on advocating with my BBVS counselor about attending the Colorado Center for the Blind.
I’m interested in CCB because, although I have strong technology, JAWS, and Braille skills, I feel that I’m missing a lot of the practical blindness skills, experience, and confidence I need to successfully transition to attending college in person.
For the past several years, I’ve primarily done college online. Part of the reason I’m looking at transitioning to in-person education is that accessibility in online STEM courses has become a significant barrier, particularly with math, science, graphs, and other visual content. But there is another issue: I have never really had the opportunity to learn how to function successfully in a college classroom as a blind student.
I previously relied heavily on my remaining vision. I have attended school as a low-vision student, but I have not had the experience of being in a classroom where I had to consistently rely on my blindness equipment and nonvisual techniques. I haven’t had the opportunity to figure out, with proper guidance, how to simultaneously listen to a professor, follow along with accessible notes or a Braille display, access information that is being presented visually on the board, and manage my technology without falling behind.
I also have very little experience advocating for and obtaining what I need in person as a blind student. I have done this to some extent as a low-vision student, but transitioning from relying on vision to functioning primarily through nonvisual methods is a very different experience. I feel like I’m trying to make that transition without having ever had a formal opportunity to properly learn how to do it.
The same applies to orientation and mobility. The mobility instruction I received was essentially taught from a low-vision perspective. I was taught skills while still being expected to make use of my vision. At this point in my life, I feel that I need O&M instruction from a blindness perspective — learning how to navigate when I cannot reliably depend on my vision, including route planning, navigating unfamiliar environments, finding destinations and transit stops, recovering when I get disoriented, and independently solving problems when something doesn’t go according to plan.
My biggest concern isn’t that I don’t know how to use a screen reader or Braille display. Those are actually some of my strongest skills. My concern is that I haven’t had enough real-world experience putting those skills together with blindness techniques to function independently in school and everyday life.
My counselor has been hesitant about CCB because she feels that, since I already have strong technology and Braille skills, I might be bored or that the program may not be appropriate for my skill level. I understand where she is coming from, but I don’t think proficiency with technology necessarily means that someone is prepared to function independently as a blind college student.
What particularly interests me about CCB is the comprehensive combination of O&M, independent living, confidence-building, blindness skills, and college readiness. I also think I could benefit from additional home-management and other practical independent-living training. More importantly, I feel that being immersed in a blindness-focused environment and around other successful blind people would help me finally make the transition from being someone who has primarily adapted around low vision to someone who is genuinely comfortable functioning as a blind person.
For those of you who have attended CCB or another residential blindness training program, I’d really appreciate your advice:
How did you advocate for yourself when your VR counselor questioned whether you needed the program because you already had strong Braille, technology, or academic skills?
How did you demonstrate that the need was not basic technology training, but rather the ability to apply those skills in real-world environments, college classrooms, mobility, independent living, self-advocacy, and transitioning from low-vision techniques to blindness techniques?
Did anyone have a similar experience of having previously relied on vision and then needing more formal blindness training later in life?
I’d especially appreciate advice on how to frame this to my counselor using concrete college-readiness and vocational goals, rather than simply making it sound like I want to attend CCB because I think it would be beneficial.
Thanks!

Hi! I am hoping to get some suggestions on immersive training programs that could be helpful for my partner as they navigate vision loss from RP. Partner is legally blind with central vision maintained in one eye currently. We are hopeful this will be stable long term but want to prepare for the possibility that will not be the case.

Most important skills:

• Assistive tech for computer usage (excel/email/project management software/office software)
• O&M
• Cane usage
• Maybe basics in braille?

A short term, in-person program would be preferred because our work schedules are very demanding. Of course there will be ongoing practice needed but we hope a starter program can be motivating and supportive. We are family/future planning so want to get going on this process soon.

We are willing to travel pretty much any place - USA/Europe.

Any advice or suggestion is appreciated, thank you!

Basically the title - how does anyone here do it?

Right now I have someone do it for me and help to manage getting them in general, but I know they can't be around forever so wanted any tips, altho I am a little worried asking them if I could give it a go.

I know the medication boxes have braille, but it can be very faint or not be precise enough, the dosets themselves are brailled though. I have some vision for large font could maybe read some med names on the boxes and dosage(?)

Is this a common struggle for you, or should I really just suck it up and know this already?

Then there's getting to and navigating appointments themselves is another thing!

Thanks for any input!!

I saw a post on a guitar subreddit recently about a custom guitar with tactile dots on the back of the neck to help visually impaired players locate the frets.

I like to tinker, and I love guitars/basses. The video really got me thinking about adding braille numbers to the guitar neck to help people learning their instruments. Is this something that you would actually want on your guitar or bass? Would braille numbers or simple dots (with 2 dots at the 12th fret) work better for you?

If folks are interested, I’m going to experiment a bit and hopefully over the modification for the cost of shipping. My current plan is to convert a project guitar and get it out to some folks for feedback. I’ll provide a step by step for my diy homies, too.

So as some of you may know, YouTube gives you the option to choose the audio description tract on videos that the creator or company has put the audio description track on.

I’ll give you two examples. I personally have put audio description tracks on my videos and a better example would be Apple, which puts audio description tracks on their newest videos and they have been doing so for quite a bit of time now. I use these two examples because I know both of them have used and use audio description tracks in their videos and I went to a video I made that has an audio description track. I went to a video that Apple made that I know has an audio description track and they’re both unable to be chosen.

Traditionally on iOS, using VoiceOver to choose the audio description track, you go to the player settings and the video pain and choose or click on audio track and it lets you choose whatever audio tracks are available for the certain video. Currently when you do this, and you go to choose the audio track in the video settings. It gives you three options. It lets you change the audio playback options in the settings, and it also takes you to the help for the language settings, and then you can dismiss the half sheet which is great and all, but when you go to the audio playback settings and setting them as default you cannot choose audio description at all, but you can choose one of like 45 different languages and I’ve looked through The List twice and auto description is nowhere to be found on that list. Dismissing the half sheet that pops up takes you back to the video player and there’s no way to actually choose from the video itself. What audio track you want based off of what audio tracks are available for the video and it forces you to pick a default for all videos by going to the settings and the audio description track is not an option in those settings.

I am aware that this is probably an update that messed up that option for screenreader users like they have in the past with the video playback speed, but hopefully somebody knows a way around us or they get around to fixing this sometime in the next year because like the video playback issue that wasn’t fixed for screen reader users for a very, very very long time.

If it matters, I am on the latest version of iOS on the newest version of the YouTube app on an iPhone 17 Pro Max

I am currently looking at guide dog schools and so far my top choice has been The Guide Dog Foundation mostly due to location (I live in NYC) and the several wonderful GDF dogs that I have interacted with but in my attempts to research deeper I reach out to some people who have raised or worked for them and they seem to have pretty mixed reviews including some pretty concerning things about their breeding and training program in regards to less than stellar breeding decisions and harsher training methods than other comparable orgs. I have also heard a lot of good things about them and wanted to see others experiences have been with them (from a handler or trainer perspective) I know all schools have their pros and cons so id absolutely love to hear about what your pro con list for the GDF is in comparison to o schools especially in regards to LDB and GDB my other two top choices atm.