With so much going on in the world right now, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. There is such a mixture of emotions running through our veins due to the coronavirus and protesting for Black Lives Matter. It's heavy and it leaves us searching for a little goodness in our lives or ways that we can help others and bring some positivity back into the world. A new app allows us to do just that, allowing you to help people who are blind and the connections people are making are amazing.
The app is called Be My Eyes and it was created to help people who are blind or low-vision. The people using the App are made up of a global community of blind and low-vision people as well as sighted volunteers. Bringing together not only the power of technology, but the power of human connection (something we so badly need right now), sighted people are able to bring sight to people with vision loss.
It works through a video call, where the volunteers simply provide visual assistance for everyday tasks such as finding things in the refrigerator, matching colors, reading labels, fixing computer issues, helping them to navigate a new place, and so many more. The app is free to use and available on both iOS and Android.
Jon, a volunteer from the United States shares on the website that, “It just makes me feel really good that I live in a time, when I can be of any service to anybody else - especially somebody that I’ve never met, will never meet, they’ll never meet me. You just know that something you did that was so simple could’ve changed somebody’s life that day.”
Let's be honest here moms, if you have a teen who is on their phone all day (ahem, all of them), this is a great way to encourage them to do some good in their everyday life. If they sign up to be a sighted volunteer, they will simply receive a notification on their phone whenever a user needs their help and if they are available they can answer the call to be connected with the user.
It's an incredibly simple process with huge rewards.