Google touts Glass as an accessibility tool in new YouTube video starring wheelchair-bound Glass wearer

OK, Glass: Could you pass the Kleenex?

On Wednesday, Google released a new video showing how its much-hyped wearable Glass device could be used to benefit paralyzed and wheelchair-using owners.

In this "Explorer Story" -- "Explorer" being the name that Google gives to its early users, the ones who won that Twitter contest from a few months ago for the opportunity to buy the first pairs of Glass -- Google follows Alex Blaszczuk, a wheelchair-bound Glass owner who is able to go on a camping trip, without her chaperone, thanks to Glass. It's a typically well-told spot from Google that tugs on your heartstrings in a non-mawkish way.

You can watch the video below:

Notably, this is the second time in a little under a week that we've seen stories highlighting the accessibility features of Glass, which has otherwise been derided as unnecessary, or irrelevant. In addition to this video straight from Google, we also recently learned of OpenGlass, an app developed by third-party software designers that demonstrates how Glass could be used to help the blind "see" around them by audio descriptions piped in through Glass. These benevolent uses could help Google battle criticisms that Glass is unnecessary, goofy-looking and an impotent replacement for or accessory to a smartphone.

You can watch Google's two previous Explorer Stories -- which followed a tennis player at Wimbledon, and a physics professor at the Large Hadron Collider, here. And make sure you read about our own Virginia Heffernan's up-and-down experience with Google Glass right here.