Professionals can view assistive tech for blind and partially sighted people in Northern Ireland
Building on the success of last year’s event, RNIB Northern Ireland has announced its RNIB Technology Fair 2025 will take place in February.
The event will exhibit skills and tools for modern living. RNIB Northern Ireland says it is the biggest showcase of assistive technology products for blind and partially sighted people in Northern Ireland.
The Northern Ireland Tech Fair will be taking place in Lisburn from 11am to 4.30pm on Wednesday 26 February 2025.
This year, RNIB is celebrating 200 years of braille with the Tech Fair, featuring an exhibition of braille through the years. RNIB says its braille products and services have remained at its core throughout its history. For this reason, this year the charity aims to put braille at the heart of the RNIB Tech Fair.
To find out more, email rnibni@rnib.org.uk or call the RNIB Helpline on 0303 123 9999.
Sharon Neill is 59, has been blind from birth, lives in Annalong Co. Down, and believes technology has changed her life. Sharon has been a keen advocate for access to technology for blind and partially sighted people for many years now and was the founding member of Technology Advice Group (TAG).
Now, with over 30 members, the group exists to provide technology support and a safe place to get help or share advice and to learn about technology available for people living with sight loss.
Sharon said: “I just love technology. It’s my passion. I use it every day in all kinds of ways. I use both Apple and Android phones for just making and receiving calls or browsing webpages, banking apps or shopping online, whether for groceries or anything else.
“The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses are a personal favourite of mine. I purchased a pair at the end of July and with the advances in AI, they are really working for me now. One particularly good example of how I use these would be, when I’m looking for something in my freezer.
“The Meta glasses are great for identifying different food packaging. It can be difficult to line a phone camera lens up to food packaging to read it but wearing the glasses means the tech scans exactly what I’m looking at right in front of me and I can keep my hands free.
“I believe through making the most of technology, blind and partially sighted people can achieve real confidence and independence. It’s about being able to do all those little things by yourself without always having to ask a sighted person to assist.
“I get an amazing sense of achievement when someone I’ve been working with, goes from saying ‘technology isn’t for me’ or ‘I can’t use tech’ to then being able to manage their own money or do their own online shopping and realising that you don’t need to be a tech wiz, you just need to know the tech that helps you get things done.”
Sharon continued: “TAG has been going for four years now and we’ve now got our accessible website up and running and a thriving WhatsApp group that members use to stay in touch and swop tech solutions or ideas.”
TAG will be exhibiting at the upcoming RNIB Technology Fair in February.
Sharon commented: “I’m keen to get a look around myself at some of the latest tech that’s out there. There’s always something new to learn, a new solution to a problem that we face and it’s great to be able to speak directly to some of the suppliers.”
To coincide with World Sight Day last year, RNIB highlighted the progress made with accessible QR codes and is urging for more big brands to embrace this technology.