Building Blind and Low-Vision Community with Will Butler [IEP 158]

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Our guest today is Will Butler, Vice-President of Community of the Be My Eyes app. If you haven’t heard of this app yet, we think that you’re going to be blown away when you learn how a small act of kindness can have such a big impact in the lives of blind and low-vision people.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Listen in to learn more about this app, the people behind it, who it reaches, and how it stretches across a global community with a bold, yet simple, mission in mind. We hope you come away with the same sense of “wow” as we did!</span></p> <p><strong>Show Highlights:</strong></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Will shares the compelling beginnings of the Be My Eyes app., which launched in January 2015.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Overnight, more than 10,000 people signed up to volunteer. Today, there are 4.5 million volunteers supporting about 300,000 blind and low-vision people in 185 languages.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Most calls only average 2-3 minutes.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Will explains the simple process of signing up to volunteer and what an actual call is like from a volunteer’s perspective.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Will describes users of the app, which extends far beyond what we think of as blind and low-vision people.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Most of the people with disabilities in this world do not identify as disabled, so when it comes to inclusion, accessibility, and making progress, that can be a big hurdle.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">“Be My Eyes for Work” is the latest software feature.</span></li> <li style="f