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'Be My Eyes' App Crowdsources Help For the Blind
An anonymous reader writes: A new not-for-profit app, Be My Eyes, aims to help the visually-impaired by connecting them with volunteer users who can support them in their daily lives via live video calls. Once downloaded, Be My Eyes asks the user to identify as blind or sighted, to see if you require help or are offering it. When a blind person requests assistance the app scans the system for an available volunteer. The blind user connects with the volunteer over a video call and points to the item they would like described. Be My Eyes was created by Hans Jørgen Wiberg, a visually-impaired entrepreneur, at a startup event. Wiberg teamed up with Robocat, the Danish software studio behind Haze and Thermo, to make his vision a reality.
This sounds like a great idea. I am tempted to be a volunteer. Not sure how it keeps the idiots out who may abuse this. (Yes, there are such people out there!) The FAQ only mentions "People who misuse the system will be excluded from the network." - but it could be too late by then? Perhaps they could 2 volunteers per requester and one of them could be "a moderator"? and silently observe the process to ensure safety of the blind requestor.
1. TFA clearly says Android App is coming soon
2. Blind people very rarely have issues picking clothes, they generally specifically choose clothes that can be easily identified by feel
3. Blind people do face a large number of issues on a daily basis other than picking clothes that this app could definitely help with (as mentioned in TFA, "Is this milk expired?" That's not something a QR code reader will help with
4. A QR code reader is pretty fucking useless if you can't see the code, or tell if the camera is pointed at it
to provide all blind people with a full-time personal assistant for computer use, than to stick with software ADA requirements.
I'm talking about real applications, not your shitty website. But those, too.
Ever done real ADA testing with a reader? Holy shit. I'd much prefer sighted human help to that. It's not like I'd be looking at porn since I can't see.
The fact that you think the only porn on the internet is visual porn is just sooo cute. There is everything from relatively normal smut like literotica and the alt.sex.stories text repository, to the terrifyingly strange erotic fiction that every fan fiction archive contains about every property from Harry Potter to The Bible to My Little Pony. As a person who was born completely blind, I've never had any problems with a shortage of porn. And I'd much rather access it all in privacy with my screen reader, thanks.
On a more serious note, the fact that you find screen reader testing to be difficult is utterly meaningless. Try sitting a die-hard Windows user down with Vi or Emacs, and giving them two hours to write, edit, and print a complex document. You'll get no end of complaining about how difficult and impossible it is. But people who have used the software for 20 years will be just fine, thanks. Screen readers are the same way. I have never met a fully sighted access tester who even had the slightest idea how to use the screen reading software in real life. There is a reason that Jaws For Windows used to come with an audio manual on something like 12 tapes, with 90 minutes of content per tape. And even that didn't cover all of the keyboard shortcuts, tips, tricks, and advanced functions. I would estimate that well over fifty percent of even fully blind people just have no idea how to use their software. IMHO, if you can't hire a fully blind tester, and/or don't have any blind users who can give you feedback, just go with the W3C guidelines and automated tests, or whatever other tests and guidelines are available for your platform, and don't bother with sighted testers.
tired of online ads?