The worst I had to deal with was a guy getting frustrated at me because I kept asking him to clarify since I didn't get what he meant; Think like, asking "is this x or y?" and getting a "yes."

This seems a bit paranoid. I myself don't use BME, but I've been around others who do, and the assistants are always helpful.

The app is completely anonymous. As a blind user, were I to run into a volunteer who was unpleasant all I would have to do is end the call and report the incident.

As others have stated I think this scenario is pretty unlikely.

We are given advice on how to avoid some types of problems. For instance, they advise us not to use BME for requests involving reading of confidential documents. While that is something I personally would find useful, it simply isn't safe to entrust a stranger with that. Furthermore, I wouldn't use it for IRL outdoor navigation as that too sounds dangerous and I don't think putting my life in the hands of a stranger online is appropriate.

Also, the ratio of volunteers to blind users is high enough to where many volunteers rarely if ever get a call. This is a good thing IMHO, as it means that people don't get overwhelmed with calls to the point where they delete the app. Someone wanting to get on there just to be a dink would face a pretty high barrier to entry.

I’m a sighted volunteer on the app. No screening at all for volunteers but I’m sure you could report anyone who was not helpful or worse.

I’ve only had a few calls, but have never been quick enough to answer before another volunteer does. Maybe someday I’ll be able to help you!

I've had some scumbags but mostly a pretty decent experience. I prefer Aira because more professionalism and they have GPS access, but BeMyEyes is great for when you don't want to have details of what you're doing stored on someone's server.

Hi, there was an FB post a few weeks back about a volunteer who purposely told a woman the wrong color. But honestly, I’ve used it a few times and the volunteers have been more than happy to help.
I am an Aira explore and they are monitored and reviewed, but they are definitely providing trained agents and a costly service.

There are certain things I wouldn't use it for. I did use it to get the number and pin off a gift card once, but I was going to turn right around and use it, and if something happened and they were sneaky and stole the info and used the card, no great loss. I mean, I'd have been mad, but... I wouldn't use it to say, activate a new credit card or something where I need to get the number off the thing. Just common sense stuff.

For what I've used it for, and it hasn't been mundane for the most part, the people were really good about it. I've used it to help familiarize myself with the controls on a new mixer, to program a TV remote, change some things in the BIOS of a laptop, etc.

Frankly I really wish that they would give new volunteers some moderately difficult multiple choice test scenarios and only if they got the right score they would be able to join. Of course they could try again though... I'm also not sure if they have any example videos of a call in the app for training, or common issues that could be encountered like camera positioning. Questions based on how you would communicate this would help increase the quality of assistance for end users.

Ideally this would also apply to existing users, next time they open the app or next time a potential call comes in it would prompt them to take this test. My experiences have been decent for the most part, really good a couple times and never very bad accept for technical difficulties a few times, but the ratio of volunteers to users is massive and we may as well thin the herd a bit. After all that would mean the people who really know what they are doing would get more chances to answer calls as well.

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The other side of it though, I wish there was a tutorial for aiming the camera correctly, I'm just starting to get used to the fact that I always need to hold it lower than I think, how much they can actually see if I pan it around the room, general distances I should hold it at from objects, and that I can't switch it to landscape to help them get a better picture.

I guess it's possible, you can say at the end whether it was a good or bad call. I am presuming the bad call option would give you the ability to fill in some more details, but the good call option never does. I've never had to use the bad call option. I will say this though, if it bothers you that much that you can't just disconnect the call and move on with your life, I wouldn't recommend going online at all, because you will doubtless run into this type of thing in other places.

BME would straight out skewer anyone who did such a thing. Volunteers are thoroughly screened so any creeps would have to work really hard for the chance to be nasty to someone. Deliberate harm under those circumstances would lead to charges, too, btw. No. This is not going to happen on BME.