Volunteer your eyes through an open source app

by Danielle Elder on Jan 17, 2015

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and a day of service on Monday, I wanted to highlight an open source phone application that I heard about on NPR. It’s an open source app called “Be My Eyes” created in Denmark by an visually impaired programmer. The app is currently only available for iOS phones right now, but in my experience, iPhones are the most highly rated phones for accessibility to those with visual impairments. Android phones have not fared well in that regard, so it makes sense that this app would be developed for the iOS to interface with VoiceOver, the iPhones very successful screen reading program.

This app allows a visually-impaired person to request help from a sighted person through use of the phone video camera. The requester sends a video, and a volunteer responds to the video. Requests can be request to read things like expiration dates on milk, identifying canned food items, etc.

You can find out more about the app, how to use it, how to donate, and most importantly to how volunteer your eyes here: http://bemyeyes.org

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What are you doing for others?'” – Martin Luther King