Volunteer Your Eyes to Help the Blind

 | Fri 19 Jun 2015 07:12 ICT

CityNews — ‘Lend your eyes to the blind’ is the slogan for “Be My Eyes”, a non-profit smartphone application inviting people to join a community to help better blind peoples’ lives all over the world.

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The application was launched on January 15, 2015 in Denmark, and conceptualised by Hans Jorgen Wiberg, a 51 year-old Danish craftsman. Now, there are 232,300 sighted persons and 19,959 blind persons using this app worldwide with a total 82,852 helpers.

“Be My Eyes” is extremely easy to use. Blind people can submit a request for assistance that will then be pushed to a random volunteer’s device that is currently available, and the volunteer simply taps a button to accept the request. If the request is accepted, a live video feed from the blind person’s device appears on the volunteer’s screen. Requests from the blind user could be as simple as helping them read an expiration on food packaging or helping them to navigate somewhere.

Be my eyes

The application not only assists the blind but is a great opportunity for volunteers to do good deeds in a way which is not financially demanding nor intrusive to their lives. If volunteers are unable to help, they simply don’t ‘tap’ on the incoming request.

‘Be my eyes’ has now been downloaded up to 10,000 times in Thailand. According to MacThai news, the number of blind persons using this app are uncertain, but estimated at around 200 people. Thai language is provided as an option in the application.  ‘Be my eyes’ is available for download only on iTunes while the Android version is in progress. It is a new easy way to help our fellow citizens who are blind in various situations and all that is required is a smartphone and a helping spirit.

Be My Eyes on Vimeo.