People who are visually-impaired, have low vision, or are blind, have to rely on others for numerous day-to-day tasks, often creating a lack of independence. Be My Eyes, a new app which focuses on accessibility and inclusion, is putting the power back in their hands by pairing them with sighted volunteers via video calls.
Christian Erfurt, 34, and Hans Jorgen Wilberg, 57, are the men behind the app. With over 2.2 billion people having near or distance-vision impairment, this app was a hit the moment it launched, instantly grabbing the spotlight with over 10,000 volunteers signing up the first day.
“I met Hans, the co-founder and inventor, during a start-up competition I was organising in 2012,” said Mr Erfurt, chief executive and co-founder of Be My Eyes. “He is visually impaired and presented the idea to me and I fell in love with it. The random act of kindness element really appealed to me.
“Since we’ve been up and running we’ve helped new mums-to-be read pregnancy test results and in one case, years after his father passed away, we were able to help a man visit his father’s graveside on his own for the first time. These are really intimate moments for people and it’s a proud moment to know we can help them,” he added.
Today, the app has more than 4.8 million volunteers, serving 313,000 users on the app. In the UAE, the app is serving 2,000 blind or visually impaired users with 5,000 volunteers.
Once the users download the app on the phone, they can select their first and second language, if applicable. Based on the time zone and language, each call is matched to a volunteer.
“Volunteers are not disturbed between the hours of 10pm and 7am, so if a user is looking to speak to someone in Danish but it’s 3am in Denmark, they can be matched with a Danish speaker in Australia, for instance,” Mr Erfurt said.
“Our research showed us that people find it tough having to rely on friends or family all the time. They don’t like having to call them for help at a time that might not be convenient for the person on the other end of the phone. Volunteers on Be My Eyes have been chosen to take a call and are on hand to help, so the users don’t have to worry about disturbing someone’s day,” he added.
Active in 150 countries, the most popular languages on the. App are English and Portuguese, followed by Arabic, Hindu, and Urdu.
