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The Be My Eyes app which connects the blind and low-vision community to sighted volunteers

In the age of coronavirus, it is more important than ever before to help the blind and low-vision community feel supported and safe. Be My Eyes is a free mobile app with one main goal: to make the world more accessible for blind and low-vision people. The app connects blind and low-vision individuals with sighted volunteers (over 3.7 million and counting) and companies from all over the world through a live video call.

Progressive and forward thinking brands like Microsoft, Google and Procter and Gamble have also started partnering with Be My Eyes to create dedicated customer experiences. According to the WHO, the estimatednumberofpeople visually impairedin theworldis 285 million: 39 millionblindand 246 million having low vision. They represent a hugely underserved market for brands wishing to reach new customers and build unique new experiences and content.

I caught up with Will Butler, VP of Community to find out more about his journey and how brands can work with this inspiring platform.

Afdhel Aziz: Will, welcome. Please tell us about your personal journey, and how it lead you to your work at Be My Eyes?

Will Butler: Ive been dealing with changing vision most of my life. I used only one eye all throughout high school, but mostly maintained as a regular "sighted" person. I drove a car, did all the normal things a sighted person would do. It wasn't until I was 19 that my "good eye" finally gave out on me that I had to really start confronting the idea. But it took me four more years to finally take the most important step: adopting a white cane.

I wrote about this in this Times piece, but the cane is so stigmatized, it is really hard for us as newly blind people to admit that we need the tools that are available. It's like accepting defeat. But once you adopt the tools, it's far beyond defeat: it's total empowerment.

That's what I'd like to think we're doing here with Be My Eyes: giving people a tool that can change their life. An app that allows you to randomly harness the power of someone else's eyes for on-demand assistance with no strings attached? That means not leaning on friends, loved ones, or colleagues to overcome your most common daily barriers. That's pretty powerful when utilized, and I think many of our users who use the app often would testify that it has changed their lives for the better.

Will Butler, VP of Community for Be My Eyes

Aziz: Thank you for sharing that Will. Is it true that Be My Eyes is the largest online blind community out there? How do we get more members of the blind or low vision community to join?

Butler: Yes there are very few communities that have a self-selecting blind/low vision membership like ours, and certainly none that serve users in almost 200 languages. With the power of crowdsourced volunteerism and translation, we were able to scale up our UI quickly in terms of translation to meet the needs of a global community, not just a U.S.-based or westernized community. We're very proud of that and it's particularly rewarding to see Be My Eyes utilized in parts of the world where there are little to no services it truly becomes a lifeline for blind people in rural and underdeveloped parts of the world.

Due to regulations around medical data and privacy considerations, many companies have no idea who their blind users are. That's why companies even big ones with their own video chat apps, like Microsoft and Google come to Be My Eyes for that portal into the blindness community. Be My Eyes is known around the world as the go-to hub for getting support as a blind person, and for that reason companies join our platform as support providers to meet customers and users where they already are.

At the end of the day, we grow as a community by word of mouth: the power of our message, both from the volunteers and other blind users, is what propels us forward as a community. Growing the blind community is a fascinating and difficult challenge which is one that I take most of the responsibility for at Be My Eyes. We have strong connections with blindness organizations around the world who provide direct services, making sure they know about us. We attend and speak at conferences. And we use the same digital marketing tools as anyone else!

Historically blind people have been very isolated having a very custodial relationship with their sighted friends and family and haven't been directly connected to traditional information channels. Today, it's different. Blind people have incredible accessible technology natively running on iOS and Android devices. So you can reach blind people directly, searching by interests, the same way you reach someone who likes cats or sports or golf. That's pretty cool, and a sign that blind people have come a long way in terms of participation in society.

Aziz: That is pretty cool. There is something heartwarming about the fact that you have so many sighted volunteers (4 million) - why do you think that is?

Butler: I don't care what anyone says: Helping other people is the most fundamental aspect of human nature. We all tend to our needs: food, water, sleep, etc. But helping others having an understanding of ourselves in relation to other beings is the thing that elevates us beyond animals. Be My Eyes gives people who are searching for meaning and let's be honest that's all of us an opportunity to get out of the "smartphone zombie" loop and connect with a real human in a powerful way.

There's the simple task at hand: a straightforward, solvable A to B interaction. Then there's the knowledge that you helped someone, the feeling of connection and meaning it provides. I've never seen such a dopamine rush come from any other app. That's why we're approaching 4 million volunteers, and it's why people so freely and openly take to social media to share their experiences. I couldn't think of a better bridge between humans for these strange virtual times we're now living in.

In Part 2 of this interview (click here), we explore how brands like Microsoft, Google and others are working with Be My Eyes to create unique customer experiences.

See the rest here:
The Power Of Purpose: How Brands Can Work With Be My Eyes To Help The Blind And Low-Vision Community (Part 1) - Forbes

This entry was posted on March 25, 2020 at 7:44 am and is filed under Blindness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |