Story thread · 2 reports / 2 sources

How Meta is offering ‘sight’ to Utah’s blind veterans

deseret.com · 23h · first reportShare

Navy veteran Larry Wade was in his late 70s when he lost his sight to retinitis pigmentosa — a rare genetic eye disorder. Blindness is life-altering for anyone. But the condition seemed especially cruel for Wade — a Utah painter celebrated for his impressionist works of vast landscapes and depictions of Latter-day Saint pioneers. When Wade lost his sight, he simultaneously lost his capacity to create beauty with oil and brush. The daily challenges of blindness, of course, stretch far beyond painting. For Wade and many other military veterans living with some degree of vision impairment, it can impede many of the most basic elements of personal independence and dignity. Simply reading a food or prescription medicine label typically demands assistance. But an initiative sponsored by Meta — formerly known as Facebook Inc. — is helping American military veterans such as Wade reclaim priceless measures of empowerment. The tech company on Tuesday donated dozens of its Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses