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 SmartHub skill available on Amazon Echo devices. Although the functionality of the hub will remain the same, there have been a few changes made in order to align with the rebranding of NCBI. The first of course being 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.

The changes made to the existing skill are set to be released in January 2024. It is important to note that existing users of the skill will be required to re-link their Amazon account if they wish to continue having access to talking newspapers and magazines. More information will be sent out closer to the release date, but for now, some of the changes are outlined below.

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.