New app giving Islanders an eye for independence

Monday 26 January 2015

A new video app is already helping to transform the lives of visually impaired Islanders and helping them to live more independently.

The Jersey Blind Society says around 10 of their clients have signed up for the Be My Eyes app and are using it to connect with sighted volunteers and get their help seeing things they can’t.

The charity has about 50 volunteers helping on a daily basis with the bigger jobs like driving visually impaired Islanders around or going out shopping but they say this new app will really help them with everyday living.

Assistive Technician Scott Douglas said: “This is all about the smaller tasks. checking the date on milk, if two socks are the same colour – little things - Is this the right battery for my clock, is this a 13 amp fuse, something that will help a visually impaired person to live more independently.

“We found in our kitchen the other day someone couldn’t tell whether a carrot was a carrot or a parsnip – if you were in a farm shop you wouldn’t know, so it’s more about the little tasks.”

Scott’s wife is visually impaired and has already sought help from a volunteer to change their baby’s nappy.

Scott said: “We used it for nappy rash cream, she asked if it was nappy rash cream. A gentleman answered. The cream had very small writing and the guy said yes it was nappy rash cream. It was very quick, the call lasted 15 seconds. My wife thought it was absolutely brilliant.”

Scott said about 20 local volunteers have also signed up to remotely help be someone else’s eyes.

The app that was invented by Hans Jorgen Wiberg – a visually impaired man in Denmark - only works through the video call feature on an iPhone at the moment but there are plans to expand it for use with other phones too.

According to the Be My Eyes website more than 80,000 sighted volunteers and almost 6,000 blind people around the world have signed up to the app so far.