RNIB Technology Fair 2025 to exhibit skills and tools for modern living in Northern Ireland
Building on the runaway success of last year’s event, the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) in Northern Ireland has announced that its annual technology fair will take place in February.
RNIB’s Technology Fair, which takes place in Lisburn from 11am to 4.30pm on Wednesday, 26 February 2025, is Northern Ireland’s top tech event for people affected by sight loss.
The event will exhibit skills and tools for modern living, the charity says it is the biggest showcase of assistive technology products for blind and partially sighted people in Northern Ireland.
This year, RNIB is celebrating 200 years of Braille with the Tech Fair featuring an exhibition of Braille through the years.
Sharon Neill is aged 59, has been blind from birth and lives in Annalong, County 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 TAG (Technology Advice Group).
Now, with over 30 members, the group exists to provide tech 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: “The TAG group 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.”
The TAG group 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.”
An innovation partnership between the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and the Motability Foundation launched to explore innovative ways of making journeys better for people with sight loss.
