Be My Eyes was created by a 50 year old Danish furniture craftsman, Hans Jørgen Wiberg, who started losing his vision when he was just 25. His wish was that he could create an app to give blind people across the globe the help they desire, whilst giving sighted people the opportunity to help. Hans and his team worked incredibly hard to make the app a reality. On January 15th 2015 their hard work paid off as the app was launched on Apple’s iPhone. They are currently working on an app for Androids.

The app works by using video calls. Blind people can simply go onto the app, and tap the button on the middle of the screen which reads ‘connect to the first available helper’; after the button is tapped the app will connect you to a sighted user. Once connected all you have to do is say what you need help with and point the camera so the sighted user can see. This means that by working together, they have solved the problem that the blind person has.

There are 341 thousand sighted users, 25.9 thousand visually impaired users; that’s 10 times more sighted users than visually impaired users. This shows that the world isn’t all bad. The company, however, are trying to reach more visually impaired people so they can get the help that the app offers. The amazing part is, in just over two years the volunteers have helped 127 thousand times, and that number is just going to keep on growing. A wonderful app that is sure to connect people across the world

Sources:

1. BBC:
   An app to help blind people to 'see'.

2. Visionaware:
   My Experience with Using the Be My Eyes App.