A new app makes life easier for the blind, by connecting them with sighted helpers through a smartphone app. This allows the blind to handle big and small tasks, while sighted get the joy of helping someone else in a easy and informal way. The app is called Be My Eyes and could revolutionize everyday life for the blind.
It only takes a minute to choose the right tin can from the shelf, look at the expiration date on the milk or find the right thing to eat in the fridge if you have full vision that is. For visual impaired individuals smaller tasks in their home can often become bigger challenges. “Be My Eyes” and hopes to change that!
Through a direct video call the app gives blind people the opportunity to ask a sighted volunteer for help, for tasks that requires normal vision. The sighted helper is able to see and describe what the blind person is showing the sighted helper by filming with the video camera in the smartphone. That way, by working together they are able to solve the problem that the blind person is facing.
John Heilbrunn, vice chairman of The Danish Association of the Blind, sees it as great opportunity to get help from a network of volunteers. “The app makes it possible to get help at times where it might be inconvenient to get help from neighbors or friends, and you don’t have to go apologetically and ask for help.”
The idea behind Be My Eyes come from Hans Jørgen Wiberg, a 50-year-old furniture craftsman who started losing his vision when he was 25.
The Be My Eyes app is free and available in the AppStore.
