Be My Eyes – Helping blind see 17+

I love answering calls because it humbles me that low vision or blind people go through a lot of extra work just to get through daily life. And to be able to make it easier for them means the world to me. It ALWAYS makes me smile even if I’m having a bad day by helping. Everyone is so grateful and wonderful to work with. I even helped out a man with narrowed vision who voluntarily goes out and helps homeless people and needed help reading a SUPER small print sheet that had all the resources for people in need. He just needed to find the one for housing to help people get back on their feet. Not only are they giving back and volunteering, but I felt a part of it at the same time because I was able to help him find the resources he needed so he could give out to those he helps who are homeless. Someone with a disability giving back in the way they receive help themselves is the definition of giving forward. And I just think this is Suh an amazing app, with amazing people all over the world. I can’t want until my next call to help out someone new. Now if I could also meet them, that would just mean the world to me to meet these incredible people. They inspire me.

I would love to give this app, a higher rating and I would have except that it’s recent behavior is frustrating. I use the app mainly for reading mail. Occasionally, it will tell me that it can’t read the recipients name or address, because it is not supposed to disclose information from an image. To me, that kind of defeats, the purpose of using the app for reading mail as a blind person. yet, other times, it will read the mail, including giving me the name and recipients address. So the inconsistent application of this rule is confusing. But ultimately, the real frustration is that it applies this rule in the first place, meaning that I can’t always use this app, because I have to switch to another app to read the image. In other respects, though, Be My Eyes is wonderful at describing images and scenes. when I sent a message about being frustrated, with the fact that it wouldn’t disclose this information, it responded that I could cover the personal information with the piece of paper and that way it wouldn’t reveal such information. This implied then that it would reveal all the information if I didn’t cover the page, but that wasn’t the case. since this behavior just started in the last month, I’m presuming that it might be a response related to how the European Union wants Apple to handle images. So, this is why I’ve rated the app reluctantly as a three star rating.

I love having this app on my phone. While I have only received two calls in the last 6 months (I was too late to answer my first call, but successfully answered the second call today!), it’s still amazing that I was able to help someone with something so small; something the rest of us take for granted every day.

Today a woman called asking if I could help her adjust her thermostat. When she pointed the camera, it was a little low. I asked her to hold the phone up a little, and then I was able to see the thermostat clearly. Her heat was set on 70°, so she counted the buttons up to 75° and I let her know she had successfully turned her heat up. She said she didn’t need anymore help and thanked me for helping! I told her she was welcome and to have a great day. She was very sweet and I was glad I got to help:)

A lot of these reviews seem to forget this app is for the visually impaired. It isn’t about how many calls you get to answer, or how great you feel because you volunteered. This app is designed to help those who need it. I think it’s wonderful that so many people volunteer, regardless of the number of people that need help.