The eye masks given out by crew in Emirates’ business-class cabins help customers sleep during flights. However, the masks have a lot more potential, as the airline recently demonstrated when it distributed more than 12,000 of the eye masks to schools for the blind, sensory services, and vision support centres in the UK.
The airline says the donation was inspired by an idea from a creative teacher in Scotland, who connected Emirates to a network of more than 80 service providers across the UK, and explained how eye masks can be used when training teaching staff.
In September 2024 the teacher in question – Tracy Pearce, an outreach teacher with Sight Scotland based at the Royal Blind School in Edinburgh – had the idea to reach out to Emirates with a request for eye shades, knowing that they are used on overnight Emirates flights. Pearce and her colleagues work with visually impaired children in Scotland, training teachers and support staff how best to support young people who are blind or visually impaired.
She wrote passionately about the school, and how they often use eye shades during training activities, to simulate how difficult everyday activities can be for those with a visual impairment. Pearce stressed how impactful these exercises can be for teachers and wondered whether Emirates could support their work.
Emirates’ PR and CSR team were able to locate eye shades to fulfil the request, and also encouraged Pearce to connect with her network of teachers across the UK so that multiple requests could be fulfilled. Within a few days, Emirates had received requests from more than 80 dedicated teachers across the UK, who shared that they would love to use the eye shades in their trainings.
By November, 12,250 business-class eyeshades had been distributed to schools and centres like Guide Dogs for the Blind Associations, Learning and Inclusion Centres, Sensory Service providers, Schools for the Low Vision Community and Habilitation services.
Pearec said that the eye shades are a crucial tool in the training sessions, adding, “We’re grateful to Emirates for their generous donation, which will make a significant difference in our ability to teach with empathy and expertise.”
Emirates’ inclusive services for the low vision community
The eye shade donations form part of Emirates’ broader work to make travel more inclusive and accessible for all. The airline is also currently working with the Be My Eyes app for the blind and low-vision community, making it the first airline to launch the service.
The app provides accessible video support for customers, creating empathetic experiences for customers with disabilities. Customers can download the Be My Eyes app for free on their smartphones, and by selecting Emirates from the company profile list on the app, they can place a call routed through the Emirates Call Centre for support via a live video call. The Emirates agent can then direct the customer on which direction to walk or what to do next. The Be My Eyes app has grown in popularity and is supported through 8 million volunteers who become the eyes for the blind and low-vision community.
On Emirates’ newest aircraft, the Airbus A350, the airline has brought in a new user interface on the Ice inflight entertainment (IFE) system designed to help visually impaired customers. The interface imparts best practice experiences including audio-cue navigation assistance, voice metadata feedback, and touch-and-swipe gesturing support. A large selection of audio-descriptive (AD) content is also available, including movies and TV series.
Other assistance initiatives by Emirates for customers who are visually impaired include website accessibility, booking support, accessible self-service airport kiosks, and meet and assist services from check‑in to the gate, or from the aircraft to onward transport at all airports.
