10 September 2026
When a fire began closing in on Katrina Taylor’s neighbourhood in western Victoria, her smart glasses became an important tool as she prepared for a potential evacuation.
She put on her smart glasses and left her phone charging while continuing to listen to ABC Radio updates, take phone calls and keep up with text messages from neighbours.
The hands-free technology meant she could pack essential items while her husband went to assist his parents. She also used the glasses to capture video of the smoke and strong winds as conditions changed.
“My husband made the point to pack some food because if we evacuate, we may not be able to get anything to eat straight away. I got onto that. When I’m in the pantry, the [smart glasses] are telling me what item I’m holding,” Taylor explained.
“It let me be able to identify different items that I needed to pack…it just made that whole process much easier.”
Taylor also uses her smart glasses in everyday situations, including describing unfamiliar environments, clothing, items when grocery shopping and reading street signs.
For her, the technology has helped maintain confidence and independence as her vision has changed.
“I’ve had a lot of changes in my sight in the last year,” Taylor said.
“Being able to go for a walk somewhere and navigate that more confidently has definitely made a bigger difference.”
Blind Citizens Australia CEO Deb Deshayes said Australians deserve both strong privacy protections and unhindered access to technologies that support their autonomy and safety.
“Privacy is important, and people have a right to feel safe from covert recording. However, a camera on a pair of smart glasses is not automatically a surveillance device – it is often an essential assistive tool,” Deshayes said.
“For someone who is blind or vision impaired, that camera can be the way they access information that sighted people get from looking around them.
“It processes visual information into spoken feedback, enabling everyday tasks and crucial safety decisions in emergency situations like bushfires.”
As businesses and public bodies around Australia introduce their own restrictions on smart glasses, BCA is urging decisionmakers to focus on how technology is used rather than simply whether it is being worn.
BCA is calling for clear and broad exemptions for people who use smart glasses as accessibility technology, ensuring legitimate disability-related use is not caught by blanket restrictions.
Taylor added that growing concerns about smart glasses risk overlooking the people who use them for important purposes.
“There are often a lot of people that are using them for very legitimate purposes, but at the moment we all seem to be tarred with the same brush,” Taylor said.
Media Contact:
Amila Dedovic
amila.dedovic@bca.org.au
0403 967 406
Jess Hough
jess.hough@bca.org.au