I’m not making jokes or puns for the sake of it. That grand old institution doesn’t just want to be judged on the credentials of its past – it wants to lead us into the future.
RNIB hosted a breakfast event in London yesterday called ‘The Role of Technology In Transforming The Lives Of People With Sight Loss’. Managing Director of RNIB Solutions, Neil Heslop led the charge by outlining just how much assistive technology can give to a person living with sight impairment. Quite rightly, RNIB has identified the handheld device as the ‘epicentre’ of the notion.
Every day in the UK 100 people learn that they will lose their sight. The RNIB wants to continue its traditional role of providing solutions and support in whatever way it can and intend to be driving other organisations to do the same.
It’s clear that RNIB and Heslop, in particular, have taken inspiration from others but want to take things much further. Heslop mentioned as an example, that the late Steve Jobs took a fundamental decision to add in assistive technology at no incremental increase in costs and that Apple is still “leading the way” thanks in some part to their “Maverick” Jobs. With this broad vision in mind, Heslop sees technology as being at the centre of: work, money, social life, travel, home and content (information etc).
He’s also wise enough to realise that today’s achievements will be as nothing to what will happen over the next five years. A fine illustration of this is the smart specs – that were available for touching and pawing – that essentially use a camera to augment what a person with diminished sight can see and projects an outline image on to the inside of a glasses lens. Clearly, the technology will run and run but it’s already beginning to make the impossible overlap with reality.
RNIB have already got some serious players together as partners to their vision of an assistive rich, technological society. Google, Amazon, Samsung and Apple to name a few are all on board so far and Heslop wants more, suggesting that he wants to influence Chief Operating Officers in other large organisations. “Where are the organisations of value to the community?” is his question; I daresay it won’t be long until he has an answer.
