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"Be My Eyes" App - Lending your vision to the blind or visuall


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#1
britechguy

britechguy

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Hello All,

 

To the moderators, if this really should be in "Off Topic" rather than Mobile Apps then please feel free to move it there.  Since what I'm about to discuss is a mobile app for both the Android and iOS platforms I thought I'd put it here.

 

In real life one of the ways I eke out a living is as an assistive technology tutor for screen reading software and magnification software for individuals who have significant visual impairment or are blind.  As a result, I participate in several online groups related to screen reading technology.  The other day on one of those groups someone made reference to using Be My Eyes when setting up either Windows or BIOS/UEFI or similar where a screen reader could not yet be active to provide feedback.

I had never heard of it before, and then someone mentioned Be My Eyes again in private messages in response to a post I made regarding Accessibility Development & Testing Resources.  After checking out their website, and signing up as a volunteer, I really felt that they do deserve as much publicity and word-of-mouth promotion as they can get.  I have absolutely no affiliation with, other than as a volunteer, or financial interest of any kind in Be My Eyes.

The concept is simple, allowing blind or low vision individuals to use their smartphones, and specifically their smartphones' video calling capability, to connect with a volunteer when they are in a situation where "only vision will do," and there are a lot of cases where there is no substitute for vision.  I signed up as a volunteer and have only received one call over the last several days, and it was for something simple, needing to have the expiration date on a carton of eggs read, but it was really simple to do and certainly has a "feel good" payback for those of us who are sighted volunteers.

Let your sighted friends, relatives, and other associates know about Be My Eyes and ask them to take a look at their website and to consider becoming a volunteer and let your blind or low-vision friends, relatives, and associates know about it to sign up as a user.  I was not certain how frequent incoming requests might be, but it appears that the size of the volunteer base makes is such that no one is going to be inundated and every call for assistance is sent out to multiple volunteers and whoever answers first handles the call.  It's an easy way to lend an eye, so to speak, to someone who needs one at the moment.


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#2
paws

paws

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Hi Brian,

Interesting post,

thanks for sharing

Maybe some of our members with smartphones will be interested in helping.

hope so

Regards

paws


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#3
britechguy

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You're quite welcome.  When I first learned of this service it caused one of those, "This is what the good side of the internet is all about!," reactions.

 

So far I've still only received that one incoming call for help, and given that the Be My Eyes website says they have approximately 900K volunteers spread across timezones and linguistic communities that's no surprise.

 

It's such a nice service.


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#4
paws

paws

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:thumbsup:


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