Be My Eyes started from an idea Hans Jørgen Wiberg, a Danish man, had. Hans himself was suffering from retinal pigmentary degeneration which is an illness that causes gradual loss of vision. When video calls came into place, he thought it could be a convenient tool to get the support when in need. However, he didn’t want to call and bother his friends or families every time when he needed just a little bit of help. On the other hand, once he goes outside, there were many people that were more than willing to help when he was in need. But then again, it wasn’t like he needed a full support all the time. That was how he came up with the idea of using technology to connect the visually impaired with people willing to help when they are in need. That became the “Be My Eyes” app in 2015.
It is a system that enables the user to press the Call button when he is in need to connect to the volunteer that first picked up the phone. It is in a way a visual version of Uber.

As he needed technical support, he partnered with Christian Erfurt (the current CEO) to develop the app and to become joint founders of Be My Eyes. Currently there are 17 staff members based in Denmark and the US working for the organization. In Denmark, there are 4 web developers managing and developing the 3 apps running on Android, iPhone and web browsers. Isn’t is amazing that with only the 4 of them, they are managing the app that is currently used all around the world? In addition, there is a core division in Denmark managing the organization such as the Communication Department. In the US, we have 4 to 5 staff members including myself that are working on partnerships and business models.

Be My Eyes is not a nonprofit organization but is a social enterprise that is managed through partnerships with corporations around the globe that are willing to support the community for the visually impaired. Companies such as Google, Microsoft and P＆G are amongst them. By becoming our partners, corporations are able to use the software technology of Be My Eyes. They can, for example, use the software to support their own employees and promote such partnerships as their CSR initiative. In addition to corporations, we also have a number of nonprofit organizations that are our partners such as a blind dog organization and an organization that supports rehabilitation of the visually impaired. Our partners also are spread across the globe such as the Paralympic Association in Brazil, and other nonprofit organizations in countries such as India and the US. Most recently, we partnered with a nonprofit organization in Italy and have started a specialized service in Italian language.

Yes. That simplicity is what is wonderful about Be My Eyes. Individuals can become volunteers by simply registering. It also allows large corporations like Google to participate. Google has a specialized department that receive calls through Be My Eyes. There are also companies such as Microsoft, P＆G and a blind dog organization that have their own specialized line on Be My Eyes which the users can specify and call.

Exactly. There are nearly 250,000 blind and low-vision users of Be My Eyes. There are even more number of people across the globe that are in need of such service. This number is significant for the business as well. Our first corporate partner was Microsoft and they have supported us in various ways including providing us with feedback on our technology and design. There was also a problem for visually impaired women that were unable to read the results after taking a pregnancy test on their own. That led to creating a service for them to connect directly and anonymously to P＆G specialists through Be My Eyes.

It was a struggle to build the current business model. When we started, we did not have any revenue and needed to operate on a very small budget. There were various ideas and suggestions such as why not charge users for the app or put up an advertisement. However, we believed that it did not make sense for the visually impaired to need to pay for the small help they need simply to be able to carry out their living in a way any person without a handicap would normally take for granted. We therefore were determined to make the app free. In addition, it is only when the user is in need of help that they make the call with Be My Eyes. We did not want to add an additional barrier by putting up an ad. We believed that it was important that each and every call could be made smoothly. We struggled and came up with various ideas that we tried and failed until we finally built our current partnership model based on software licensing contract. For the companies, this partnership gives them access to the community for blind and low-vision people. We believe it is a mutually beneficial win-win partnership.

We have moving episodes every day. For example, we receive a number of calls relating to food packages. Is this can corn or beans? For the visually impaired, there is no way of telling. However, by using the Be My Eyes app, they are now able to solve this problem in a matter of 30 seconds simply by making a call. Volunteers that answered the call also feel good as they were able to help someone. This is happening thousands of times every day across the world every moment. I once heard about a bride with visual handicap that called asking the volunteer to check how she looked in her wedding dress immediately before walking down the wedding aisle. Another user called as he heard strange noises in his backyard. When he asked the volunteer to check, he was told that it was only his dog. As the user did not own a dog, together with the volunteer, they checked the collar on the dog and were able to return the stray dog back to its owner.

Exactly! Every call is a team work between users and volunteers. Together, they can build something or fix something. Through Be My Eyes people that do not know each other can connect and become a team to solve problems. On Twitter you can find a number of moving episodes being posted in variety of languages including Japanese every day.

Yes. Volunteers can also have a wonderful experience. We sometimes joke and say that although Be My Eyes is an app for the visually impaired, we actually may have created it for the volunteers. There are a number of heart moving episodes of users and volunteers alike.

I love our Japanese users!
Although the number of users in Japan is still limited, we are happy that there are people that are passionate supporters of Be My Eyes. When our two founders visited Japan and made a presentation at the Apple Store in Kyoto, there were users that said they were big fans of Be My Eyes. Be My Eyes is already usable in Japanese with thousands of users in Japan. We also have a number of registered volunteers. However, I think we still have a relatively limited number of users as we are not yet well known in Japan. We would like to do everything we can to expand the Be My Eyes community in Japan. We of course need more volunteers in Japan but we are also in search for a nonprofit organization in Japan that could partner with us. In addition to organizations that support the visually impaired, as our system is usable for anyone with a mobile phone, we would wish many people to know about our service including organizations that supports the elderly. There are so many cases where a little bit of help by the volunteer could solve the problem when you are alone at home and do not want to bother your friends and families. We would be happy to cooperate with any organization that could help us connect to the people in need of Be My Eyes. In addition, there are the corporate partners. We have had discussions with a few Japanese corporations with the momentum of the Tokyo Olympics. However, we have not found a corporate partner in Japan so far. There are a number of top class corporations in Japan in terms of technology or design. We will be very happy to work together with them as partners to help the 100s of millions of blind and low vision people across the world.