Elisabeth Díaz is blind, 43 years old and leads a full and independent life. However, sometimes you need immediate help, someone else’s eyes that allow you to see what your own cannot. Knowing what’s in a shop window, taking a sugar test, selecting what clothes to wear, knowing the expiration date of medications… All of these day-to-day actions are somewhat more complicated for blind people, although not impossible.
“I remember that one day I had to fix the boiler following the instructions that appeared on the screen, but I can’t see them. I called a volunteer through the app and was helped by a person completely unknown to me. He told me which buttons I had to press,” Elisabeth illustrates. Refers to the ‘Be my eyes’ app [‘Sé mis ojos’]which connects more than 8,358,000 volunteers around the world with the almost 764,000 registered people with visual disabilities. Using their mobile phone, anyone who needs it can contact an assistant to guide them in real time, even if they do not meet again throughout their lives. In addition, it has artificial intelligence that describes any image in almost detail.
Elisabeth has been using it for about 18 months. “I’m not a very technological person, but in the end I decided to download it, and I should have done it much earlier,” acknowledges this ONCE worker. In your case, use the two functions that the application allows. On the one hand, the AI that describes what appears in any photograph that the user wants read. On the other hand, the connection with the volunteers, who see what surrounds the user through the mobile camera.
“My little niece sends me a lot of photos and now I know what appears in them thanks to this application. I also take photos, upload them, and it tells me what’s there,” he explains. For example, it is useful to know what product is inside the jars when several are gathered in your house, since artificial intelligence is capable of reading the labels. “It’s complicated because you have to focus well, and sometimes it’s hard,” says this totally blind woman.
On another occasion, Díaz used this function again when he bought some gifts that had to be illustrated in a certain way and that the photo reader was not able to detail. “The artificial intelligence only told me that they were dolls, but not which ones specifically. “I called a volunteer and he confirmed that I had the gift with the illustration I wanted in my hands,” he exemplifies.
Data protection and “censorship”
Alberto Lorenzo has been using the application for about two years. “I am a very restless person and I like to learn about the technological tools that improve my quality of life,” says this predoctoral researcher about accessibility for people with visual disabilities.
“I use it a lot. For example, when I’m in front of a shop window and I can’t find anyone around me, I call a volunteer to tell me what’s there, what characteristics things have or how much they cost,” he says. He also uses the application when he feels lost: “To go places I use Google Maps as a guide, but there are areas that I don’t know, so I call someone to warn me of the obstacles I encounter and prevent me from leaving the area.” journey or end up on the road,” he adds.
Lorenzo, 42 years old, is practically an expert in the tool, which he uses every week. Therefore, he points out some precautions he takes and suggests improvements. According to him, once he has requested that anyone assist him, the application does not tell him if he is waiting or is already being attended to, something that is repeated once you hang up the call, “although we do not know if we have hung up correctly,” he points out. . For this reason, Lorenzo and many others like him do not stop repeating a “hello” as a greeting from the moment they start the call until they know if there is a person on the other end.
And he recognizes some caution when it comes to activating ‘Be my eyes’ inside the house. “Data protection must be taken into account. I don’t distrust volunteers, but I don’t know who’s behind it, so I don’t like to show where I live, what I’m wearing or anything about my privacy, even if it’s something as simple as an electricity bill on which all my belongings appear. data”, he develops.
Mauro Ugedo is 14 years old and admits that he uses it a lot, especially the image recognition function through artificial intelligence. This young content creator, blind from birth, uses the tool to find out what is written on any poster, what appears in any photo sent to him, or even to choose the thumbnails that will be the cover of the videos he posts on YouTube and TikTok. On the other hand, consider that before calling a stranger you would try to contact a friend by video call.
The criticism that this user of ‘Be my eyes’ makes is linked to censorship, which he considers a way of restricting the knowledge of the world to people with visual disabilities. “If someone appears smoking, they don’t tell you. Or if it is a sexual image, the application itself warns you that it contravenes its policies,” he explains. Ugedo is committed to making the application a mirror of real life, without restrictions: “It doesn’t need to be too explicit, but I don’t understand why it can’t tell you that in a photo there are people having sex or a naked body appears,” rivet.
The first call, Mother’s Day
Among the more than eight million volunteers registered in the application is Lucía Machota, known in Instagram as @lucialovesromeo given his outreach work around visual impairment. Mother of a child blind from birth, she enrolled in April 2018. “I remember the first time I received a call was on Mother’s Day. “I felt like a super gift,” he recalls. On that occasion, a blind person wanted to put on the washing machine and she had to tell him if all the clothes she had prepared on the floor were white or colored.
Throughout all these years he has received about 15 calls. “I have helped carry out simple tasks with the computer, read letters, select or count money, even choose how a person is going to dress by showing me the clothes they had in the closet,” she proudly points out. She adds that many blind people do not turn on the light in their homes, so the application allows volunteers to activate the blind person’s mobile flashlight to better see what is shown around them.
“I always look forward to being called, although there are so many volunteers for so few blind people that the probability of it being your turn is very low. Also, you have to pick up quickly, because otherwise the call goes to another volunteer. When that happens, it appears on the screen that another assistant has already responded,” he explains. The call must go out on several volunteer phones at the same time, to see who answers first, Machota details.
‘Be my eyes’ allows you to select the language, but also the time slot in which a volunteer is willing to help. “For me, the component of solidarity that exists in helping people you don’t know at all and with whom you will surely never meet again is essential,” he values. For her, the satisfaction she feels after answering one of these calls is the best thing that has happened to her all day, she says.
On the other hand, Machota also emphasizes the need to make good use of the tool. “I know of cases of assistants who have picked up the call and the other person, who also has no way of knowing if they are blind or not, is naked. Let’s try to use the application for what it is designed for,” he complains.
Lucía is not the only one in her family who is registered as a volunteer. He is followed by his cousins, Rubén and Paco Pérez. Rubén has received three calls since using it. The first time it was a man who had to be told what type of medication he had in front of him and its expiration date. “Every time they have called me it has been to expressly talk about the help they needed at that moment, there has not been much conversation, although people have always been very pleasant and grateful,” he points out.
The second time his phone rang from the app was because a boy had found many remote controls in a drawer, so Rubén spent several minutes with him trying to determine which one belonged to each device. The third was from a girl whom he could not help: “She asked me if I could tell her how to get to a specific place and she told me that she lived in Castilla y León, but I am from another community and I could hardly tell her anything.” . I was afraid to indicate the wrong thing and I preferred to be cautious,” he clarifies.
A solidarity tool
Paco Pérez, his brother, has had the application since December 2018. In all these years he has only received one call. “It was a somewhat older couple, both blind, and he had to take a sugar test. I guided them to tell them when the drop of blood came out and how to bring the test strip closer, and then tell them the result. I was very excited to be able to help them,” he recalls. This happened just two weeks ago, before the end of the year. “They were super grateful people, they asked me about Christmas and when it came time to tell it afterwards I even got nervous, because it was an experience that I wanted to enjoy,” he continues.
His experience summarizes that of the rest of the people consulted. Volunteers feel fulfilled by making life easier for those in need in a simple way, while people with disabilities get immediate help for free. They all highlight the importance of making these types of tools known. “I wish all the blind people who needed it would know her, and I wish everyone would do their bit for her,” Paco concludes.
#Solidarity #technology #application #connects #blind #people #unknown #assistants
