I've tried Be My Eyes, the popular application that associates the blind to helpers | Life and style

Unsuspecting on the application market, we have reached an often neglected demographic group: the blind.

Be My Eyes, created by Hans Jorgen Wiberg in 2015, badociates volunteers with blind or visually impaired people who need help with small daily tasks. These can range from reading an expiration date on a can of milk to the description of the color of a shirt. Wanting to be helpful, I volunteered, ready to answer the call of a person needing a snack or an opinion on an outfit.

The application has a flaw, though comforting: the number of registered volunteers, which is in millions, far exceeds the 138 455 blind or visually impaired people who use it. I waited for a call to help someone in visual need, but there were too many volunteers on my way.

I contacted Alexander Hauerslev Jensen, the CCO of Be My Eyes, who told me the story of the application. Wiberg, who himself has a visual disability, spoke at the Danish Association of the Blind. There, he learned that making it easier for friends and family members to help them with simple tasks was their way of handling the tasks they needed help with. Be My Eyes was created as a more efficient platform, allowing its users to be more independent without having to always rely on personal relationships.

"At the time of our launch, we did not know if people would give their time to help complete strangers," says Jensen. "But in the first 24 hours we had more than 10,000 volunteers."

After explaining that I had not received any calls, I was told to pay attention to calls the next day. "Stay very close to your phone," said Jensen, "because you have to be quick to get them."

So I waited. When it finally sounded, the timing could not be worse. I was halfway in the subway and had just entered a tunnel. I decided not to answer for fear of losing the call. I knew that hundreds of thousands of people could help the person I refused to answer.

"The fact that we have so many volunteers allows us to have a very fast response time. I see this as a good problem, "he says. "It takes a few minutes to make a big impact on someone else's life. It's a combination of technology and human generosity. "

I finally got another video call in my office. "Hello, did I answer, how can I help you?" The man on the phone said he was coming from Pakistan and that he needed to be there. help to read. I was asked to read the instructions on the box of his insta kheer (a South Asian rice pudding). After a few fumbling attempts to force him to move his phone a little to the left and a little to the right, I could see the clear daylight instructions on the side of the Crispo green box. And though he spoke perfect English, the instructions were however in another language and another script – Urdu.

I could not disappoint my first interlocutor. Although, by the circumstance, I could read Urdu, I decided to want to be certain of the information that I was transmitting to my new friend. I asked him to hold on, but I could feel that he felt like I could not help him. I quickly researched the instructions in English for this brand's rice pudding. Excited by the success of my super dig, I read him the simple instructions.

"Bring 1 liter of milk to the boil. Add the bag of rice to the milk. Stir the mixture continuously until thickened. Turn off the heat and let cool. Serves 6-8 people. "

"Thank you, ma'am," he said gently. "God bless you."

At first glance, Be My Eyes is a chance for anyone to help people who are blind or visually impaired, but perhaps a better description of this experience is reciprocity of beneficence. I helped a man prepare a midnight snack, but he helped me in making me feel useful. I look forward to sharing in the near future the eyes that I took for granted with others, that is, if I can answer the call in time.