Be My Eyes App Volunteer Story

Be My Eyes is an app that pairs a blind or low-vision user with a sighted volunteer based on language and timezone. The first volunteer to answer the request is connected to that specific user and receives live video feed from the rear-facing camera of the user's smartphone.

I recently signed up as a volunteer on the Be My Eyes app - https://www.bemyeyes.com/ and here is what I want you to know:
    •    Downloading the app and signing up is extremely easy.
    •    Currently, there are 492,555 blind/visually impaired users on the app.
    •    There are 6.5 million volunteers.

I encourage you to reach out to anyone you know struggling with vision loss to sign up for the Be My Eyes app. Within a few days of signing up, I received my first call and spoke with a gentleman named “David”. David was completely blind and needed help pairing his iPad to his Bluetooth speakers. While Siri was helpful, David was dealing with some frustrations of not knowing whether his iPad was on, loading, or if

With some simple instructions, we were able to get his speakers paired and working. It was great to hear how excited he was to have the problem solved. David said he had been a long time user of the Be My Eyes app, and that it had become invaluable in helping him navigate certain technologies.
 
Whether you are blind and need help or you want to volunteer, I would encourage everyone to take a deeper look into the Be My Eyes app.  My call with David was a brief 10 minutes out of my day, but the joy of having assisted will last much longer.

Jodie Kalla