I’m Hans Jørgen Wiberg, founder of Be My Eyes, an app that connects blind and low vision individuals with sighted volunteers and companies from all over the world through a live video call. AMA!

I’d just like to say thank you for making this app! I’ve been able to help 3 blind people in the last year and it feels great. What gave y’all the idea to create this network?

Being visually impaired myself and working for the Danish Blind Association gave me a lot of insights that gave me the idea for the app. A friend of mine was using FaceTime to get visual assistance, but the problem was that he always had to call someone specific. This gave me the idea for the volunteer network.

And thank you for being a volunteer!

I am on the network as well and have received one call. I wasn't able to help them (there was gravy on the receipt so I couldn't see the total and told them they would need to ask their server) but I still felt like a super hero afterwards. So thank you for helping people with vision issues who need a helping hand for a moment, but also for giving others a way to Actually Help another human.

Thanks for the kind words!

Great stuff. My uncle uses this and finds it amazing

Thank you! And say hello to your uncle.

Is all data transmitted over an encrypted channel?

Yes - everything is fully encrypted.

Is it end to end encrypted though? What kind of encryption are you using? Do you store any of the video or audio?

Edit: sorry for the 3rd degree, I’m in the tech field. Also awesome app idea! A great cause

Yes it is end to end. If you want a more technical answer to your question, please send an email to [email protected] and we can include our tech people :)

I don't have a question, but want to say that you and your team are awesome. Thank you for all that you do!

Thank you!

Came here to say this too. Organisations like this are one of the reasons i believe in humanity!

Thanks so much!

Do you make money off this app or is it a non-profit project?

We are a for-profit organization but we believe in purpose and profit. The app is totally free for the blind users, and the money we make is used to make the app sustainable

How do you monetize it?

Great question - Early on we considered low-hanging fruit like advertising or subscriptions, but decided it was against our core belief that accessibility services should be free and globally available. We had a poster at the old office saying “Everybody wins, only when nobody loses.” This simple but powerful statement became our design sentence for creating a full circle business model. It took us a couple of years, but we found that companies were struggling to communicate effectively with their blind or low vision customers – which led to our B2B product “Specialized Help."

Specialized Help is video-customer support from our blind/low vision community to any company's customer support center. It’s a company agent answering the call which enables them to give the blind/low vision consumer the best possible service. It's great because the company actually get to solve their customers’ problem quickly, while simultaneously gain insights into where their products and services are lacking from an accessibility perspective. Our aim has been to build a purpose-profit driven business in an ecosystem where “everybody wins when nobody loses”.

That's awesome! But sounds like it requires some serious business buy-in. Are there any accessibility laws on the horizon that require companies to provide some sort of specialized service to blind/low vision customers?

Also, downloaded BME a couple of weeks ago. Anxiously awaiting my first call!

Accessibility is becoming a higher and higher priority.

We are working with multiple household name companies who are all very excited to reach our community via Specialized Help.

Here are some links to the already implemented accessibility standards. https://www.section508.gov/ https://www.w3.org/standards/webdesign/accessibility

Some of the companies (banks) I work with are increasingly working at accessibility, and attending to the blind has been a significant portion of that.

I already read below that your app isn't recommended for financial transactions, and that was something I was going to ask because it would have seemed off.

That said, is your company considering how it could provide some workable solutions for financial companies looking to attend to their blind costumers?

Yes, we are in dialogue with banking companies. If you know about any banks that would be interested in working with us, please reach out!

Cool. Good luck and keep up the good work. This is an exceptionally brilliant idea.

Thanks so much - appreciate it!

I am a BME helper, but have only gotten one call. The guy I helped had a bunch of family pictures, they were trying to pick and arrange what photos to use for his father funeral. We spent nearly 1 hour going through old photos, his mother was with him and as I described the images she was listening (also she was blind) helping identify. It was neat to help this man, I felt like I had done a good service. I only wonder why I have not gotten another call? How does the app work, random calling of helpers, maybe I got a bad rating from the guy? I sure hope not.

Happy to hear you had a good experience with it - that was a beautiful story!

It is completely random, so just be patient. I'm sure you did a great job and didn't get a bad rating!

Hello, Hans and the Be My Eyes Team! What unique steps do you take in your design process to ensure Be My Eyes is accessible and inclusive to all of your users?

P.S. Thank you for making such a wonderful product!

Thank you for the nice words!

I am almost completely blind myself, so we always keep the blind user in mind. Everything is tested to make sure it works with all accessibility features. We also make sure to keep the UI as user-friendly as possible to make sure it's easy to navigate for people using accessibility features.

Thanks for the response, Hans! That's so great to hear and it certainly shows.

I'm a UX/UI designer and would love to help out in any way that I can. Will you be available sometime to talk about future opportunities to join the design team at Be My Eyes?

Thank you for the interest. Please send an email to [email protected]

Hello guys!
I'm signed up and waiting for my first call. I think this is an awesome app, because it's so easy to help someone through the phone. I wish you all the best!
Question: How can I, as just a nobody, help out more than just signing up and wait for the call?

There’s a few things you can do, if you want to help us spread the word about Be My Eyes.

If you speak more than one language, you can help us translate the app and website. We use the crowdsourcing website Crowdin for all our translations, and all you need to do is to create a free user to get started. You can access our translation projects here: https://crowdin.com/profile

You can take contact to your local blind organization to make sure that they are familiar with Be My Eyes. You can also get involved as a volunteer at your local blind organization. Most blind organizations have a variety of volunteer positions, so contact your local blind organization to hear more about their volunteer opportunities. Also if you meet a blind person on the street, you can ask them if they know about Be My Eyes.

If you’re familiar with any media outlets that might be interested in writing about Be My Eyes, don’t hesitate to give them a tip.

Give us a shoutout on Social Media. We love when people talk about us on Social Media, and the Be My Eyes community benefits greatly from word-of-mouth. Feel free to tag any of our Social Media platforms in your post - We’re on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bemyeyesapp

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BeMyEyes

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bemyeyesapp

What you think is the reason for having 10+ times more volunteers than users? Accessibility, maybe?

Most of our sign-ups come from articles and social media stories going viral and the demographic is simply that more sighted people get exposed to the stories --- And there are simply so many wonderful people in this world eager to help one another.

Fascinating, so good to know that so many people are eager to help.

What's your strategy for reaching more users? It must be hard considering how focused in visuals is modern advertising.

We're trying hard to cooperate with blind organizations for them to help us promote the app to their members. We also rely heavily on word-of-mouth - both from blind and low-vision users and volunteers

What was one of the biggest struggles getting BME up and running?

Building something extremely simple can be very complicated. We had a lot of things we wanted to do, so narrowing it down to a simple solution was very challenging! User driven products are often simple at their core.

Hi Hans, I recently took my first call and had a great interaction!

I'm curious as what your favorite story from the Be My Eyes app has been so far?

We have many great stories! One of them is a guy in Sweden who couldn't find his self-moving lawn-mower. You can read many more stories in our Community Stories section: www.bemyeyes.com/community-stories

Forgive me for asking, but if you are too vision impaired to find your lawn mover should you be using one?

He probably meant "self-moving".

Ah that makes more sense than the picture of a blind person on a seat mower that I had in my head.

Yes that was a typo, meant self-moving :D

Great app overall but have you thought of integrating AI or have any plans to? My team and I developed an app which helps the visually impaired to identify the names of public figures, landscapes, human emotions and also color of an object, all using our neural network. Hint: We're always looking for partners and open to any kind of collabs ;)

That sounds interesting! Please send us an email at [email protected]

Can you elaborate on how it works not the tech stuff. Mostly just the sales pitch. Also how dose one volunteer for this and what are the time commitments.

When a blind user needs visual assistance, they can make a call from the app. A sighted volunteer will answer the call and will have access to the blind user's video feed, from which they can provide visual assistance. They can ask for help with anything from reading expiry dates to matching clothes. You can check out our video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GRfFuWsjNU

You can download from App Store and Google Play. There are no time commitments. When you receive a call you just pick up if you're available.

Wow, this is perfect timing! We were just discussing the possibility of this: I didn't know it already existed. My question is, how is the data handled? I am talking especially about the new restrictions in the EU, where you need to allow someone to film/photograph you. To specify: if one would assist a blind person for example in traffic and other persons are being filmed, is this a violation of those restrictions? Thank you for your work and this AMA!

Hi Panoli, Everything is fully encrypted and is compliant with GDPR. Be My Eyes should be done for anything that can put the blind user in danger or to handle sensitive matters like social security numbers, bank info etc.

Thank you for your answer, I still don't get the compliance with GDPR. Does this mean it can't be used in public? Or is this usage free under the restrictions? Feel free to just tell me if this question goes to deep into technicalities which you don't want to share and I will stop bothering you. It's really just interest from my side, because I had my fair share of problems with the new restrictions. :)

I'm not sure we fully understand your question. Could you send an email to [email protected] and elaborate a bit more, and we will take the time to give you a proper answer

I heard about this app about 6 months ago but didn't download it. I'd be using it on the 'sighted' side but I'm nervous. Has the app been abused at all? People pretending to need help to troll strangers?

There's nothing to be nervous about! It's a simple way to help out another person. In a community of this size, we can't completely avoid pranksters, and we deal with it as fast as we can. It happens extremely rarely. You can always report abuse after the call, and if you feel uncomfortable, you can hang up immediately and report it.

You're right, of course. I suppose it's just the unknown. Once I do it then it'll be like second nature.

I think your app is amazing by the way. I'm looking forward to getting to use it .

Thanks so much, happy to have you onboard!

I've had the app for a while now - and it would be nice if there was more time to answer the call - I know that you are trying to get someone ASAP that is available and you have many volunteers! But, It'd be nice to have a little more time. Is this something that you will implement in the future?

Thank you being part of our community - we understand the wish for a long time request and it's something we are working on. It's a balance and we aim to serve both sides of the community.

Does the call go out to multiple volunteers and it's first come first serve or does it bounce between volunteers one by one until someone answers? I would think the person needing the help getting it ASAP should be prioritized over any one volunteer having more time to answer a call that they wanted to help with.

The main priority is to get a fast answer to the blind user. Therefore the request is sent to a batch of volunteers, and the first to answer will get connected. In the rare case that none of the volunteers in the batch answers, it will be sent to a new batch until answered.

I know, back when it was just starting to get rolling, that BME was very slow to connect, I remember literally setting my phone down for half an hour and not getting connected back then. I use different apps now, like BeSpecular I think that let me just take a picture and ask for a specific answer than dealing with essentially a video call with strangers.

We've had great improvement in connection times since we started. Now most calls are connected within 30 seconds

Are you a descendant of Erik Jørgensen?

Not that I know off - Jørgensen is a very common last name in Denmark. But they make great furniture!

Hi Hans,

My question is how much of your outreach is focused on getting blind and low vision folks on the app versus sighted folks who can help? It seems like there’s WAY more helpers on the app than actual people who need the help. I’ve been signed up for two years now I think and have never once received a call for help because there’s so many people. Do you feel like there’s more help than you could possibly ever need on the app?

Right now our outreach is heavily focused on potential blind and low-vision users, because we have so many amazing volunteers who are ready to help. But we do also appreciate opportunities like these! How many volunteers we have also depend on the language. Some languages are very volunteer heavy, while some of the smaller languages have fewer volunteers.

Which languages have the most blind or low vision users with too few helpers?

On the top of my head, we would like more Hindi, Kannada, Japanese, and Indonesian speaking volunteers.

I have a web service that is required to support Multifactor authentication.

What Multifactor approaches work for blind and low vision users?

Don't use image captchas! Typically anything that uses a mobile phone is good. Texting a code, or anything text-based really. Audio can work too, but remember there are also blind people who are deaf or hard of hearing and will struggle if there aren't text-based options.

I've had the app for 8 months now but no calls. Is the UK very volunteer heavy or am I doing something wrong?

We do have a lot of volunteers in the UK, so there might be some time between calls. Please be aware that the notification will disappear from your phone when it's picked up by another volunteer, so you might have received requests you didn't see. Just be patient!

I was happy to sign up to help during that big reddit push you mentioned! Curious about how it randomly selects people to call. If you're called, but don't answer, do you get moved on the list next time someone is asking for help? Or is it truly random meaning some people may never get a call? Also, about how many calls per day are people making?

We do prioritize people who have recently signed up, but besides that it's completely random. It doesn't affect it if you don't pick up a call. It varies a lot how many calls people are making per day. Some people make several calls per day, while others don't use it every day.

1. Hvordan brukes applikasjonen?
2. Er det støtte for at veldige blinde personer kan bruke den?
3. Er den lett og forstå for funksjonshemmede brukere?

Bare et parr spørsmål ettersom jeg lurer.

Appen er meget enkel at bruge. Som blind kan du lave et opkald til en frivillig, og som frivillig modtager du et opkald når nogen har brug for hjælp. Den fungerer med alle tilgængelighedsværktøjer. Vi har gjort meget ud af at gøre den enkel og let.

What are your thoughts on making Be My Eyes available as a desktop app for volunteers?

Development capacities aside, do you think this would be a good addition?

Since Be My Eyes is open source, is there anything preventing a third party from creating a desktop app that connects to the official service?

A desktop version will definitely be a good addition, and it's in our pipeline.

In the beginning we experienced with open source, but it was difficult to project manage. We haven't been using open source in several years.

What happens if the volunteer causes an accident. Like steering the blind person into a hole, either intentional or unintentional?

Our blind users are independent, intelligent people who know their own boundaries. We've been in business for four years and haven't had an accident yet. We also urge all users and volunteers to carefully follow our terms of use.

Have you ever had any malicious activities regarding improper treatment of the blind people? If so, how do you prevent this from happening?

Whenever you have had a call, you can report the other person if you experience inappropriate behavior. When people get reported we can block them right away.

Hi! I want to ask if you plan having a stats section in your app, or your website, so we can see how many people from a country use it? That, and how many people from each language. Both volunteers and visually-impaired users.

It would be really cool to know who are we helping, and also how many people from how country are using it.

Be My Eyes is completely anonymous, so we don't plan on sharing that information.

Hi, First, I want to say that this is an absolute fantastic idea and thank you guys for your um... vision.

My question is, how is this monetized? Is there a fee or subscription for the app or do you guys work under grants and donations? If there is a cost to the user, how do you balance providing an affordable service for people in need with making enough money to continue to help the differently abled? If there is no fee, where can people make donations and how can people help out?

Thanks so much for your kind words!

This answer is a copy paste from a previous answer, but I believe it answers your question: Early on we considered low-hanging fruit like advertising or subscriptions, but decided it was against our core belief that accessibility services should be free and globally available. We had a poster at the old office saying “Everybody wins, only when nobody loses.” This simple but powerful statement became our design sentence for creating a full circle business model. It took us a couple of years, but we found that companies were struggling to communicate effectively with their blind or low vision customers – which led to our B2B product “Specialized Help." Specialized Help is video-customer support from our blind/low vision community to any company's customer support center. It’s a company agent answering the call which enables them to give the blind/low vision consumer the best possible service. It's great because the company actually get to solve their customers’ problem quickly, while simultaneously gain insights into where their products and services are lacking from an accessibility perspective. Our aim has been to build a purpose-profit driven business in an ecosystem where “everybody wins when nobody loses”.

What is to stop people from fucking with the visually impaired person? I am worried that some shithead kid/prankster volunteers and causes a lot of damage to them...

The blind users are informed that they shouldn't use BME in situations that can be dangerous to them. If they do experience abuse they can report it right after the call, and the volunteer will be blocked

What event, if any, lead to the idea that eventually led you to creating Be My Eyes?

A friend of mine was using FaceTime to get visual assistance, but it was often a problem that he had to call someone specific. That gave me the idea to use video connection for visual assistance and build a volunteer network to answer the calls, so you don't have to call your friends and family all the time.

I love that. It takes the emotional burden off the low vision person. It weighs a lot, thinking you're inconveniencing someone. Knowing volunteers are available is a huge load off.

Thank you for your app!

You are completely right. That is the purpose of the app - to make it easy for blind and low-vision people to ask for help!

I am a teacher at an academy for the blind and VI students. Currently I teach 4th grade.

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What classroom implications could this carry? What age group would benefit the most from it, do you think? The school goes K-12. Also, what kind of assistance do you guys have for students that are blind and also developmentally/mentally impaired?

Be aware that there's an age restriction of 17 on Be My Eyes, as we want to make sure that both parties fully understand that they are talking to a stranger. It therefore shouldn't be used in the 4th grade. But many blind university students use BME! We don't have any specific support for people who are also mentally impaired.

Thanks for filling that in for me bud!

You’re obviously able to communicate very well via text. What do you use since you are VI? I have students reaching the cell phone age now.

The vision I have left is my very central vision, which is perfect for reading text, but there's a lot of good accessibility tools out there which works well for people with different types of sight loss

Do the blind connect primarily with volunteers from the same country? Or Is it just by timezone/language?

Primarily they will be connected to someone in the same country, unless they call in the night time.

Haven’t checked the app yet but do they support other languages? Spanish as well?

Yes - we support more than 180 different languages!

Hi Hans! I'm in the process of launching a social enterprise that creates accessibility software for websites. Is there anything you wished you would have known before launching BME?

Happy to hear you entering the business! Keep in mind that it's important to equally balance purpose and profit. If you send us an email at [email protected] we would love to share some more tips with you!

Hi I’m a volunteer and actually received one call since I signed up! Strangely enough the call I received was simply a woman testing the app and not actually in need of help. Is there a way for users to filter what kind of call they would like to make? Or maybe for us volunteers to know what kind of help is needed so we can assess if we are suited for the job or not?

Also do users that need assistance have to verify with you that they are legally blind? Just making sure that I’m not picking up on a scam call

Thanks!!

We encourage blind users to test it out, so they're familiar with how to use the app when they need it. There is no way to filter the calls.

Blindness is a wide spectrum, so we don't have a verification system as people can have completely different levels of sight but still benefit from the service. Scam calls are very rare, but if it happens you can report it in the call rating after ending the call.

How do you handle trolls? Is there a review system for volunteers?

Yes you will enter a call review after every call where you can prevent misuse.

How does one prevent this from being abused? Walking people into traffic, telling people incorrect information for their own amusement, ect?

The blind users are informed that they shouldn't use BME in situations that can be dangerous to them. If they do experience abuse they can report it right after the call, and the volunteer will be blocked

Care to share your favorite recipe?

Black coffee!