“It's my hope that by helping each other as an online community, Be My Eyes will make a big difference in the everyday lives of blind people all over the world.”

“It's my hope that by helping each other as an online community, Be My Eyes will make a big difference in the everyday lives of blind people all over the world.”

Hans Jørgen Wiberg, Founder of Be My Eyes
“It's my hope that by helping each other as an online community, Be My Eyes will make a big difference in the everyday lives of blind people all over the world.”

– Hans Jørgen Wiberg, Founder of Be My Eyes

Our mission is to make the world more accessible for 340 million people who are blind or have low vision.
We seek to perfect and scale a purpose with profit business model that deploys powerful new tools to create simultaneous delight for our blind and low vision community, our volunteers, and the companies and governments utilizing our platform.

Values

Blind and low vision people first
We develop our products “with” not “for” our community - and our North Star is ensuring we serve the needs of that community as we discover them together - even if it means disrupting our assumptions, thinking and business model.
Free.
We will do everything in our power to make our tools and services available for free to the blind and low vision community.
Crush it for Business Customers.
They pay the bills and make serving our community possible.
We are Builders and Owners.
We operate quickly and frugally, we're detail oriented and passionate, and we pick up the trash.
We Like to Win.
We work really hard not only because the community we serve deserves it, but also because it is necessary to win. And we like to win.
Failure is Necessary.
While we will seek to minimize failures and their impact, we can’t make big decisions, move fast, iterate, grow, or learn without making mistakes. In fact, if we aren’t making some mistakes, it means we’re not pushing hard enough.
Kindness and No Shenanigans. Period.
But not boring! - laughter and fun matter - a lot.

The story about Be My Eyes

Be My Eyes is a free mobile app with one main goal: to make the world more accessible for blind and low-vision people. The app connects blind and low-vision individuals with sighted volunteers and companies from all over the world through a live video call.

Since we launched in January 2015, over 6 million volunteers have signed up to assist blind and low-vision users. Be My Eyes users can request assistance in over 180 languages making the app the biggest online community for blind and low-vision people as well as one of the largest micro-volunteering platforms in the world! Every day, volunteers sign onto Be My Eyes to lend their sight to blind and low-vision individuals to tackle challenges and solve problems together.

The Be My Eyes story started in Denmark in 2012 with Hans Jørgen Wiberg, a Danish furniture craftsman, who is visually impaired himself. Through his work at ‘The Danish Association of the Blind’, he recognized that blind or low-vision people often needed a little assistance to solve everyday tasks. However, it wasn’t until a blind friend told him that he used video calls to connect with family and friends, who could help him with these tasks, that Hans Jørgen got the idea for Be My Eyes. He believed that the technology of video calls could be used to visually assist blind or low-vision individuals, without them having to rely on friends and family, but using a network of volunteers.

In April 2012, Hans Jørgen presented his idea at a Danish startup event, where he got connected with a team that was ready to make Be My Eyes a reality. On January 15th 2015, the Be My Eyes app was released for iOS, and within 24 hours the app had more than 10,000 users. Since the release of the iOS app, an Android version has been in high demand. The Android version was finally released on October 5th 2017. In December 2017 Be My Eyes was chosen as Google Play Best Apps of 2017 in the categories; “Most Innovative”, “Best Daily Helper” and “Best Hidden Gem”, and in May 2018 Be My Eyes won the Google Play Award 2018 for “Best Accessibility Award”. In 2021 Be My Eyes won an Apple Design Award for Social Impact.


In February 2018, we launched Specialized Help - now known as Accessible Customer Service Suite - with Microsoft as our first partner company. This enables blind and low-vision users to connect with official company representatives for accessible and efficient customer support. Be My Eyes now offers a variety of corporate solutions alongside the suite, including Be My Eyes for Work, Corporate Volunteering, Be My Eyes Experiences and Be My Eyes Careers.

Management

Mike Buckley
Chairman and CEO
Jesper Henriksen
CTO
Clay Deanhardt
General Counsel
Hans Jørgen Wiberg
Founder

Timeline

2012
April
Hans Jørgen Wiberg presents his app idea at Startup Weekend Aarhus, Denmark
2013
February
The Velux Foundations supported the first proof of concept and prototype, which led Be My Eyes to where it is today
2015
January 15
Be My Eyes launches the iOS app
May
Be My Eyes wins Best Social Entrepreneurial Tech Startup at Nordic Startup Awards
June
Be My Eyes is a finalist at Index Awards
October
Be My Eyes receives 1 of 7 spots in the Singularity University Accelerator program, as the only Scandinavian company
October
Popular Science features Be My Eyes on their list of Best App of 2015
2016
April
Be My Eyes wins the category ‘Share Resources’ at the Danish Design Award
October
Be My Eyes wins the category ‘Healthy Life’ at the European Youth Award
2017
June
Be My Eyes appears as number 10 at the Disrupt 100 2017 list
September
Be My Eyes wins the Oslo Innovation Award
October 5
Be My Eyes launches the Android app
December 8
Be My Eyes chosen as Google Play Best Apps of 2017 in the categories; “Most Innovative”, “Best Daily Helper” and “Best Hidden Gem”
2018
January 29
Be My Eyes joins forces with Moovit
February 23
Be My Eyes launches Specialized Help with Microsoft as first company
May 9
Be My Eyes wins Google Play Awards 2018 for “Best Accessibility Experience”
May 17
1 million people have signed up as Be My Eyes volunteers!
July 8
Be My Eyes receives the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards at the 2018 National Federation of the Blind National Convention
July 16
1.5 million people have signed up as Be My Eyes volunteers!
July 17
Be My Eyes wins the AbilityNet Accessibility Award at the Tech4Good Awards 2018
August 14
Microsoft expands Specialized Help opening hours to 24/7
September 12
Be My Eyes and Moovit partnership expands to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland & Iceland
October 8
Be My Eyes announced Gold Winner of GOV Design Awards in the category Digital Experience
October 23
Be My Eyes announced Gold Winner of Berlin Design Awards in the category Service - Community
October 24
100,000 blind and low-vision people have signed up for Be My Eyes
November 15
Be My Eyes founder, Hans Jørgen Wiberg, receives Lovie Emerging Entrepreneur Award at the Lovie Awards
December 10
In Your Pocket launches Be My Eyes integration in the UK
2019
January 15
Be My Eyes wins the Better Story Awards
March 13
Be My Eyes launches Google as new Specialized Help partner
March 14
2 million people have signed up as Be My Eyes volunteers!
April 10
Be My Eyes wins one of the top prizes at the Accessible Transport for Berlin Challenge
May 27
Be My Eyes wins a Blackwood Design Award
May 30
Be My Eyes launches Herbal Essences as new Specialized Help partner
June 27
Google offers their Be My Eyes service globally
July 8
Be My Eyes launches Clearblue as new Specialized Help partner
July 16
Be My Eyes releases the Be My Eyes Podcast
September 9
Be My Eyes launches Pantene as new Specialized Help partner
October 10
Be My Eyes releases campaigns with Clearblue and Herbal Essences on World Sight Day
October 14
Be My Eyes gets a new look
October 15
Be My Eyes launches National Federation of the Blind as new Specialized Help partner
October 24
Be My Eyes makes a collaborative video with Google and Microsoft
November 14
3 million people have signed up as Be My Eyes volunteers!
December 5
Google extends their opening hours on Be My Eyes
2020
March 4
200,000 blind and low-vision people have signed up for Be My Eyes
April 18
Be My Eyes official audio description partner for Global Citizen’s One World: Together at Home event
July 31
4 million people have signed up as Be My Eyes volunteers
October 2
250,000 blind and low-vision people have signed up for Be My Eyes
December 15
Launch of InclusionHub with Be My Eyes as a founding partner
2021
March 25
Zendesk becomes a Corporate Volunteering partner
April 20
300,000 blind and low-vision users have signed up for Be My Eyes
May 18
Be My Eyes is a People’s Voice winner at the 25th annual Webby Awards
June 10
Be My Eyes wins an Apple Design Award for best Social Impact app
June 30
Be My Eyes wins the AccessAbility Award by Helen Keller Services
August 5
5 million people have signed up as Be My Eyes volunteers
2022
February 25
The Be My Eyes Community reaches 6 million people
October 8
6 million people have signed up as Be My Eyes volunteers
2023
January
Corporate Volunteering can now be purchased through bemyeyes.com
2024
Today

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