One of the happiest days of a visually impaired person is a day when they can perform their day-to-day tasks as if they can “see.” Some of the common problems such as comprehension difficulties, poor organizational skills, failure to complete assignments, and experiencing difficulty staying on-task can be mitigated with aid from a volunteer. With many volunteers willing to assist visually impaired persons in accomplishing their tasks, the main challenge has been how to link volunteers with visually impaired persons.

Eyemart Express Partnership with Be My Eyes app

According to WHO, at least 2.2 billion people have a near or distance vision impairment. To help visually impaired persons accomplish their daily tasks, Eyemart Express and the Be My Eyes app have formed a partnership to connect them with willing volunteers. With the initiative getting popular each day, blind and low-vision community members increased to 2,200 new volunteers, and more joined.

How the Be My Eyes app works

The Be My Eyes app is a real-time application that connects volunteers and visually impaired persons. The visually impaired persons only need to activate their phone’s camera and a live feed to access volunteers close to their location. Upon activation of the app, volunteers are pinged, and the first respondent is connected to the user to assist in their activities. Installing the app is for free, and its usage is unlimited at any given time.

Be My Eyes is an application developed with the objective of connecting visually impaired users with volunteers in real-time so as to get assistance in their daily hardships. The visually impaired person only needs to activate the camera on their phone together with the live feed accessible in the app.

Volunteers are able to locate the app users and immediately respond to their needs. With the application being activated, available volunteers are pinged, and the available one is automatically connected to the visually impaired person. One of the main advantages of this app is that it’s not for sale, and it’s made available globally with usage 24/7.

With the visually impaired community at heart, Eyemart Express encourages all store, lab, distribution center, and home office associates to participate in virtual volunteer opportunities. The more participation in this initiative, the more visually impaired will “see” and accomplish their day-to-day activities. Eyemart Express Chief People’s Officer Gianna Venturi pointed out that the company is committed to increasing vision accessibility. Partnering with the Be My Eyes app is one step towards achieving it.

With the real-time mobile app, volunteers are flexible in guiding and helping visually impaired persons, regardless of their geographical location. The volunteers from Eyemart Express’ partnership have just improved the responsiveness towards achieving the app’s goals.

More volunteers needed

Visual impaired persons encounter a host of problems in their day-to-day life. According to the President of Community at Be My Eyes, partnering with Eyemart Express would ensure the app users overcome their daily obstacles and give the volunteers great insight into the visually impaired community’s problems.

Allentown Optical appreciates the Eyemart Express efforts in mobilizing volunteers to support visually impaired persons. We offer products and services to eye health professionals to help people with visual impairment conditions. Please get in touch with us for more information and queries.