Be My Eyes App for Blind and People with Low Vision

A new app helps you 'lend' your eyes to a person with vision disability and answer their questions over video chat to help them navigate or read a sign. Be My Eyes makes life easier for people who are blind or have low vision, by connecting them with sighted helpers through a smartphone app. This allows people with vision disabilities to handle big and small tasks, while sighted get the joy of helping someone else in a easy and informal way.

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Since the app was launched it has assisted people over 2,600 people on more than 5,400 occasions, according to the Be My Eyes website.

Through the app people who are blind or have low vision can connect with a sighted helper by pointing their phone camera at an object, which displays on the volunteer's camera. The sighted helper can then tell a person with vision disability what it is that they're pointing at.

The app Be My Eyes, developed by a new Danish non-profit 'startup', connects people who are blind and sighted people through their iPhones and iPads. The app's founder, Hans Jorgen Wiberg, who is a person with vision disability himself, said he hopes "that by helping each other as an online community, Be My Eyes will make a big difference in the everyday lives of people who are blind all over the world."

Languages Include:

English, Bokmal, Norwegian, Catalan, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian Nynorsk, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese

Compatibility:

• Requires iOS 7.0 or later.
• Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
• This app is optimized for iPhone 5, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus.

Attribution/Source(s): This quality-reviewed publication was selected for publishing by the editors of Disabled World (DW) due to its relevance to the disability community. Originally authored by Be My Eyes and published on 2015/01/19, this content may have been edited for style, clarity, or brevity.