You may have noticed—the Be My Eyes app has been getting a lot of attention lately. If you’re wondering what it is and want to see some heartwarming videos of a bunch of people using it to help people who are blind, you’ve come to the right place.
What is the Be My Eyes app?
Since 2015, the Be My Eyes app has been making a worldwide impact for disabled individuals.
In April of 2012, Hans Jorgen Wiberg, creator, pitched the Be My Eyes app at a Danish startup event. He explained that the app’s purpose was to connect caring volunteers with people who are visually impaired or blind in a meaningful way.
The app is simple, it allows people who are blind to reach out to volunteers via video chat to get help with everyday tasks.
Wilberg said of the Be My Eyes app, “It’s my hope that by helping each other as an online community, Be My Eyes will make a big difference in the everyday lives of blind people all over the world.”
So what kinds of things do volunteers help with on the app? As shown later in this article in some of the videos, it helps blind people to find items in the grocery store. It allows volunteers to help individuals to walk safely in a new location. Users who are blind might also get help with the color of a piece of clothing, expiration dates on the food in their homes, signs in a building, or written directions on a new product.
What makes this app especially important is that it gives more freedom for people with visual impairment not to have to rely on their family or friends all the time. It gives them the freedom to venture out on their own, decreasing their limitations.
The free app also allows organizes users to connect in more than 180 languages. This makes it the largest online community for people are visually impaired.
If you’re want more information the Be My Eyes app, check out the app’s informational video they posted to Facebook:
Of the app, CCO, Alexander Hauerslev Jensen said, ““When we launched, we didn’t know if people would be willing to volunteer time to help complete strangers,” Jensen tells me. “But within the first 24 hours, we had more than 10,000 volunteers.”
And according to Be My App’s website, since the January 2015 launch, more than 6,098,843 have signed up to volunteer.
Interested in getting started as a volunteer? You may wait for a while before you get a call because of the number of volunteers available versus the number of blind or visually impaired individuals. But Jensen thinks that’s a good problem.
He said, “The fact that we have so many volunteers enables us to have a really fast response time. I see it as a good problem,” he says. “It takes a few minutes to make a big impact on someone else’s life. This is a combination of technology and human generosity.”
In addition to the volunteers, in 2018, the Be My Eyes app added a feature called Specialized Help, which connects blind and visually impaired users with “official company representatives for accessible and efficient customer support,” according to the Be My Eyes website.
So the Be My Eyes app amazingly helps people around the world to “tackle challenges and solve problems together,” advancing human connectedness in an increasingly divisive world.
Wondering what the experience is like from a volunteer’s perspective? Check out this Tiktok:
@shelbydale39 Downloaded the be my eyes app about a year and a half ago! This is the third call I have been able to answer and help! #bemyeyesapp ♬ original sound – Shelby Dale
Looking for more heartwarming Be My Eyes user experiences? Click on.