evidoria

← Back to browse

Good practice Imported

Aboitiz & St. Joseph Foundations' OrCam MyEye Rollout for Blind and Low-Vision Students in the Philippines

Philippines · Pasay City · See the Philippines profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 73% 40/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Aboitiz and St. Joseph Foundations donated 25 AI-powered OrCam MyEye 2.0 wearables — which read printed text aloud and recognise faces — to six Philippine institutions for blind and low-vision students and teachers, including the Philippine National School for the Blind.

25 devices
OrCam MyEye devices donated (June 2019)
6 organisations
Recipient organisations (June 2019)
100 participants
Multicentre study participants (general OrCam MyEye efficacy, not Philippines-specific) (2023 study, 5 centers)

Details

Promoter
Aboitiz Foundation, St. Joseph Foundation & OrCam Technologies
Period
2019 (rollout); 2023 (independent efficacy study)
Keywords
assistive technology, visual impairment, special education, wearable AI

Context

The Aboitiz Foundation and St. Joseph Foundation partnered with OrCam Technologies to donate 25 OrCam MyEye 2.0 wearable AI devices to six Philippine organisations serving blind and low-vision students and educators, including the Philippine National School for the Blind.

Objectives

To give blind and low-vision students and educators an offline, AI-powered device that can read printed or digital text aloud and recognise faces, without needing internet connectivity.

Activities

In June 2019, 25 units were distributed across six recipient organisations, with the Philippine National School for the Blind receiving 7 units, alongside ATRIEV, Luke Foundation, Northern Luzon School for the Visually Impaired, Low Vision Group of the Philippines, and Ortigas Foundation.

Results

No outcome evaluation has been published specifically for the Philippine recipients. A separate independent multicentre study (n=100, five vision-rehabilitation centers, Amore et al. 2023) found statistically significant improvements in reading and face-recognition task performance using OrCam MyEye generally.

Conclusions

As a one-time equipment donation without an ongoing funding mechanism or a Philippines-specific outcome evaluation, sustainability and confirmed local impact both depend on future investment and monitoring.

Implementation
Indicative cost
High (€500k–€5M) — OrCam MyEye 2.0 is a high-cost specialised wearable device; sustainability depends on continued philanthropic funding as no ongoing funding mechanism was disclosed.
Time to results
Short (< 1 year) — Devices distributed in a single rollout in June 2019; a general (non-Philippines-specific) efficacy study was published in 2023.
Staffing & skills
Aboitiz Foundation and St. Joseph Foundation programme staff, recipient schools' staff/educators trained to introduce devices to students

Conditions for success

  • Partnership between corporate foundation (Aboitiz), NGO (St. Joseph Foundation) and device maker (OrCam)
  • Distribution across multiple specialised institutions serving blind/low-vision students
  • On-device AI requiring no internet connectivity, suited to varied infrastructure

Common failure modes

  • One-time donation with no disclosed ongoing funding mechanism
  • High device cost limits scale/replacement without continued philanthropy
  • No outcome evaluation published for the actual Philippine recipient cohort

Where it fits

Governance type
corporate/NGO philanthropic partnership
Scale
six institutions, 25 devices
Income level
lower-middle-income

Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Similar practices you may find useful