NCBI Rebrand to Vision Ireland
The National Council for the Blind Ireland (NCBI) has officially changed its name to Vision Ireland after 92 years, aiming to encourage more inclusivity in supporting a range of visual impairments.

This change includes the rebranding of the NCBI smart hub skill available on Amazon Echo devices. Although the functionality of the hub will remain the same, there have been a few changes made to align with the rebrand to Vision Ireland.

The first of course, is that the hub is no longer called NCBI. This has changed to the Vision Ireland (VI) smart hub. Simply say “Alexa, launch myVI” to launch this skill.

Launched of new myVI SmartHub Skill
The new myVI skill launched on the 8th of February this year. It is important to note that users have to enable the new skill, by saying “Alexa, enable the myVI skill” or enabling it in their Alexa mobile app by going to “more”, then “skills and games”, and using the search box to find the myVI skill.

What can you do with the SmartHub?
Once you have enabled the skill, you can start using it straight away, or link your myVI account to get access to any memberships like talking newspapers or request a call back from Vision Ireland.

If one wants to know more about the history of Vision Ireland simply say “Alexa, Tell me about the history of VI”. Where previously the title command was the history of NCBI.

Across the hub, a variety of podcasts, newsletters, and services are available using the same commands as before the rebrand. Many skills can still be accessed with the same command such as “Alexa, I want to listen to a magazine” which will prompt Alexa to respond with whether to sort the magazine by either title or genre. However, some titles have changed. To access a newsletter, simply say “Alexa, I want to listen to a Newsletter”.

The Technology Newsletter has been rebranded with the Vision Ireland (VI) name. ‘Vision Ireland Blogs’, ‘Vision Ireland Insights’, and ‘Tech on Tap with Vision Ireland Labs’ are the new options to choose from when wishing to listen to a newsletter. To access any one of these newsletters, after Alexa has said these options – simply say the title name of the desired option, and Alexa will launch the platform. For ‘Technology on Tap with Vision Ireland Labs’, simply saying ‘Technology on Tap’ will launch the newsletter.

More Information
If you have any questions about the SmartHub or would like to send us your suggestions please email [email protected].