Be My Eyes Newsletter - OCTOBER 2019. In this month’s edition: NFB on Specialized Help, World Sight Day 2019 and a new look for Be My Eyes. Welcome to the October Newsletter! Hi! It’s been a busy month at Be My Eyes, and we have a lot of exciting news to share! This month we have entered the field of blind to blind support, by welcoming the National Federation of the Blind to Be My Eyes Specialized Help on White Cane Day. Oct. 10th was World Sight Day, where we had amazing announcements from two of our existing partner companies, Clearblue and Herbal Essences. Be My Eyes also got a brand new look this month with the launch of our fresh new logo. Of course, we also have an interesting story for you to dive into. This month you can meet Jeff Thompson, who’s the host of the Blind Abilities Podcast and Be My Eyes user. Enjoy the read! News & Updates. IMAGE ALT-text: Man walking with a white cane. Over the photo is the logo of the NFB together with their tagline 'Live the life you want'. NEW: Be My Eyes Welcomes the National Federation of the Blind to Specialized Help (link). For the first time, Be My Eyes users in the United States can call another blind person on the app, with expert assistance. If you’d like to see blindness resources in your region, get on social media and let us know. IMAGE ALT-text: Logos of Clearblue and Herbal Essences. How We Celebrated World Sight Day 2019 (link). World Sight Day falls every year on the second Thursday of October. This year, we celebrated with YouTuber Molly Burke and some messages from our partners in personal care. IMAGE ALT-text: The new Be My Eyes logo in white on a blue background. NEW: Be My Eyes Has a New Look (link). After more than 4.5 years of the original Be My Eyes logo, it was time for a change! We have introduced a refreshing new Be My Eyes logo as well as a vibrant new color scheme across all our platforms. Featured Story of the Month Jeff’s Story: A Blind Podcaster Sharing “Blind Abilities” with the World (link). As the host and founder of the Blind Abilities podcast, Jeff Thompson knows a thing or two about assistive tech. Over the last 5 years, Jeff has grown his podcast and followed along on the journey of Be My Eyes from the very start. Read Jeff’s story (link). The Be My Eyes Podcast. IMAGE ALT-text: On the left, photo of Mark Riccobono, President of NFB walking down the street. On the right, photo of Stacy Cervenka, Founder of Blind Travelers Network with her two children and husband in the park. Latest episodes: 22 OCT 2019. Why You Should Meet More Blind People - Featuring Mark Riccobono, President of NFB. Mark Riccobono joins the Be My Eyes Podcast to discuss the importance of meeting other blind people, self-driving cars and gene editing. 8 OCT 2019. How Do You “Watch” Your Kids If You Can’t See Them? - Featuring Stacy Cervenka, Founder of Blind Travelers Network. Founder, Director and Mother, Stacy Cervenka joins this episode to discuss the ins and outs of blind parenting. Listen on: Apple Podcasts (link), Google Podcasts (link), Spotify (link) Be My Eyes Loves. IMAGE ALT-text: Voiss logo on top of an image depicting a handheld smartphone. Leticia VOISS - The First Realistic Speech Synthesizer in Portuguese (link). Based in Brazil, VOISS, formerly F123, designs innovative projects to expand access to technology and to provide professional low cost software and training for people who are blind or low-vision. The team at VOISS, who are all visually impaired, noticed a lack of quality voices for screen readers operating in other languages than English. With expertise within acting, project management, linguistics, and software development, they took it upon themselves to develop a voice in Portuguese. The Portuguese voice, Leticia, is now freely available for Android, Linux and Windows (link). Anyone who wants to look into developing a speech synthesizer in a language not well represented are welcome to get in touch with the VOISS team at contact@voiss.tech (link). They are happy to help in the search for funding and with technical advice. What people are saying. “The volunteers were always very friendly and patient. It’s a great thing to make my life more independent.” - Yasemin, blind user from Austria. “I’m so incredibly happy that I could help someone do a small task. I love doing this.” - Lance, American volunteer living in Singapore. “Be My Eyes has been invaluable through my creative process. It takes out a lot of the wait, I’m able to be more productive, more independent as well, I don’t have to rely on family and friends to help me be creative.” - Jennifer, blind user and jewelry designer from USA. End Note. Thanks for getting up to date with everything that’s been going on this month - as always, we’ll be back in November with more. If you can’t wait that long, you can always stay updated by following us on social media. Find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram! Talk to you soon! - The Be My Eyes Team. Total signups to this day: 165,362 Blind. 2,956,972 Volunteers.