This line from Meta’s announcement of the new Ray-Ban Display glasses with Neural Band really struck me.
“Think of the potential impact it could have for people with spinal cord injuries, limb differences, tremors, or other neuromotor conditions.”
I haven’t tried them yet — they don’t launch until 30 September, and only in the US and select stores at first — but as someone with very limited upper limb mobility, I can already see why this feels different.
Beyond another wearable
The first generation of Ray-Ban Metas already brought me into the fold. For the first time, I could wear glasses that looked like glasses, but also gave me voice control, hands-free photo and video capture, calls, messaging, and AI assistance. That was a step towards independence.
But wrist wearables from Apple, Google and Samsung have never worked for me. Even their simplest interactions — twisting a wrist, tapping a button, swiping a screen — assume movements that many severely disabled people can’t do.
That’s why the Neural Band included with the new Ray-Ban Display glasses is so intriguing. It promises to detect the tiniest signals in your wrist or hand muscles, translating them into gestures for control. Movements so small they might be invisible to others could open up technology that has long felt out of reach.
A display where you need it
The other headline change is the in-lens display. Not full augmented reality, but a heads-up view of useful information when you need it — navigation, captions, translation, notifications.
For someone like me, who often struggles with fatigue and can’t wrestle a phone out just to check a message or find a direction, this has obvious appeal. It’s about making interaction lighter, not heavier.
Previous Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses already supported WhatsApp video calls, but you still had to reach for your phone to see the person you were talking to. With the in-lens display, I’m especially looking forward to video calls that feel natural — no getting a phone out required.
And it won’t stop there. Being able to view multimedia messages from WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and even my phone, hands-free with just a pinch, feels revolutionary. For people like me, the difference between needing to grab a phone and simply glancing at a display in the right lens of the glasses is the difference between dependence and independence.
Accessibility beyond mobility
The promise isn’t limited to people with mobility challenges.
• The first-gen glasses have already been transformative for visually impaired people, thanks to the built-in camera and Meta AI.
• With live captioning, the new Display glasses could offer the same breakthrough for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
• And by combining subtle neural gestures with voice and visual overlays, Meta is creating a platform that adapts to different needs, rather than demanding the same interaction from everyone.
This is accessibility baked into design, not bolted on afterwards.
Concerns that remain
Of course, I have questions.
• In-store only at launch feels exclusionary. Many disabled people who would gain the most won’t be able to travel to a shop to try them. Online availability with solid support is essential.
• Price matters. At USD $799, these are premium glasses. Will health systems, insurers, or workplace schemes help disabled people access them?
• And then there’s privacy. Cameras in glasses can make people uneasy. Questions remain about all the data that Meta may be harvesting through these glasses. For adoption to succeed, those concerns will need to be addressed clearly and fairly.
Why this feels like the next step
Every so often, a piece of technology comes along that feels more than incremental. Even before I’ve tried them, Meta’s Ray-Ban Display glasses look like they could be such a moment.
For disabled people, they hold the promise of independence, inclusion, and interaction on terms that fit our lives. For everyone else, they hint at a future where technology becomes more discreet, more intuitive, and more human.
For me personally, while I wait for a cure to an incurable illness that may never come, technology like this helps to level the playing field just a little more.
