USH Talks: Be My Eyes - Making the World More Accessible
July 24, 2018
Hans Jørgen Wiberg
In this USH Talk, Hans Jørgen Wiberg, inventor and founder of Be My Eyes, describes the app made up of a global community that connects people who are blind or have low vision with sighted volunteers from around the world through a live video call. Be My Eyes is accessible in more than 150 countries worldwide and in 182 languages. The app is free and available for both iOS and Android.
Summary:
Distinguishing food labels, navigating through a busy street, sorting through mail. These are just a few examples of what a person with vision loss might need to know what they can’t see. Be My Eyes inventor, Hans Jørgen Wiberg, who started to lose his sight at 25, knows the challenges all too well. Wiberg, who has been working for several Danish organizations for the blind and visually impaired since 2005, imagined an app that would make random contact with a seeing volunteer. With the help of a young business student, Christian Erfurt, he developed the app Be My Eyes, launched in 2015. Today, Be My Eyes is a worldwide service connecting over 86,000 blind and visually impaired people with nearly 1.5 million volunteers in 182 different languages.
