“A game changer:” App helps visually impaired see through volunteer’s eyes

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) – More than 140,000 people are relying on total strangers for their eyesight.

They’re doing it through an app called “Be My Eyes”.

Venetta Pottinger hasn’t seen her 11-year-old daughter’s face in six years.

“I can’t get that image out of my head,” she said. “That’s the face I know.”

Mental images replace what was once in front of Pottinger, after juvenile diabetes caused her to go blind in 2013.

“I had so much going on,” she said. “I had dialysis, blindness, a daughter, fine. I’m blind, accept it, work on it and keep going.”

Pottinger uses the free “Be My Eyes” app to help with everyday tasks.

"It's easy," she said.

Cory Ballard lost his vision at 11-years-old and now, he teaches the blind how to use the app and other technology at Milwaukee’s Vision Forward.

"I think ‘Be My Eyes’ is a game changer,” he said.

Pottinger says she uses the app around twice a week.