Smart glasses 'life-changing' for blind and deaf people, despite concerns

When Chris Edwards pops on his smart glasses, his world opens up.

With them, he can read a recipe, check the settings on his washing machine, and get street directions as he walks with his guide dog.

Mr Edwards, who is blind and is also the chief mission officer at Vision Australia, says the technology is "life-changing" for people like him.

"The ability for smart glasses to help [give] a new level of independence for someone who's blind and low vision, on things that they would normally rely on other sighted people to do, is outstanding," he said.

But he is concerned by the public debate around smart glasses.

They have been branded as "pervert glasses" in the media after they were used to secretly film people without their consent.

Cheap smart glasses have also attracted negative headlines over their vulnerability to hacking, prompting the Australian privacy commissioner to launch an investigation, while Kmart appears to have pulled them from the shelves.

Mr Edwards said it was unhelpful for smart glasses to be continually labelled in negative terms, as the emerging technology had become a positive tool to help people in the broader disability community to navigate daily life.

For Matt Henderson, a town planner from Adelaide, his smart glasses have helped him participate more in the workplace.

Mr Henderson, who has been deaf since birth and uses hearing aids and lip-reading to communicate, said his glasses provide live captions during conversations and meetings.

"They've definitely increased my confidence massively.

"I'm not reliant on as many people for things, so it's independence as well."

Fractious political debate

There have been widespread calls for restrictions on smart glasses, with new Greens leader David Shoebridge planning to introduce a bill for a 12-month import ban on the devices in the Senate today.

"It is urgent. We need to act before the genie entirely escapes out of the bottle," Mr Shoebridge told the ABC.

But Senator Shoebridge added there was a carve-out in the draft legislation that would allow for an importer to be permitted to bring in the devices to sell as disability aids.

Several local councils have imposed bans at swimming pools and childcare centres, while Western Australia placed a comprehensive ban on the devices in the state's schools.

"Smart glasses may look cool but there's absolutely no place in our schools or classrooms for them," WA Education Minister Sabine Winton said last month.

While she and local councils said there would be exemptions for those with special needs, many in the disability community fear that nuance is getting lost in the heat of the debate.

Last month, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher also sought advice about whether smart glasses should be "prohibited" in public service workplaces and, if so, what exemptions might be appropriate.

Announcing the draft privacy laws in late August, Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said she acknowledged the community's "deep concerns" about the products.

"I think that every decent-minded Australian would like to ensure that these devices are not being used for nefarious purposes," Ms Rowland said.

"I'd also just finally point out that disability advocates, and groups, people who are directly impacted in a positive way by this technology, also need to have their voices heard in this debate."

Last month the government closed submissions on its proposed privacy reforms, inviting feedback on smart glasses.

Health Minister Mark Butler previously spoke about the public's "horror" over the devices.

"They are a huge bad step in the infringement on our privacy," he said at the time.

The ABC approached Mr Butler's office but he declined to comment further.

What can smart glasses do?

Both Mr Edwards and Mr Henderson feared terms like "pervert glasses" would make people uncomfortable or deter them from tapping into the potentially life-changing technology.

"The last thing that I probably need … is for this tool to suddenly be caught up in this whole conversation of smart glasses being something that we don't really want in our society," Mr Henderson said.

Mr Henderson's glasses don't have video-recording capacity but can be used for live captions, as well as translation and navigation, among other things.

"Essentially, imagine it's projecting the words in front of your vision," he said.

For Mr Edwards, the artificial intelligence (AI) aspect was crucial; while some apps served similar functions to smart glasses, he said, one of the key benefits of the wearable technology for blind people was the hands-free aspect.

"One of the challenges with a blind person is that whether they're a cane user or a seeing-eye dog user, that automatically eliminates one hand," he said.

"So if you're trying to navigate somewhere and there's a set of stairs, that means if you're holding a phone and a seeing-eye dog in the other hand, you can't hold a handrail. You can't grab a cup of coffee."

Mr Edwards said he could use voice commands to direct the glasses to describe things in front of him, such as taking a picture of a menu and asking what the vegetarian options are.

Previous versions of smart glasses as disability aids cost thousands of dollars, but newer models are more financially accessible, costing about $600.

Some in the deaf community have said there are limits to the glasses and they can't replace Auslan, which has its own grammar and syntax and does not translate directly to written English.