Welcome to Can You Top This? from Be My Eyes. Each month we share the most unusual and inspiring stories from our community. Volunteer calls, Be My AI sessions, company support, and even calls through Meta AI Glasses. Do you think your story can top the rest? Tune in, get inspired, and discover how you can win amazing prizes.
Great. Well, I'm Danielle, the Community Manager with Be My Eyes, as I just told you. And can you introduce yourself?
My name's Kerry. I live in the UK. I live on the northwest of England. I'm near, oh, the famous cities that you guys will probably know will be Manchester, Liverpool.
But I live in a little place called Thornton-Clevelies, which is on the kind of northwest, west coast. Yeah, and it's a seaside town. I'm about three or so miles from the sea.
You actually, you put in a story. So you live in England, which is relevant to your story because you put in a bit of an experience about shopping at a Tesco. Can you tell everybody else a little bit more about the story since I know but they don't?
Okay, so if you're blind, as you well know, and you're fortunate enough to live near, there are lots of shops about. But if you live, where we live, there's a lot of little shops, express shops.
So smaller versions of the big department stores or supermarkets. And so there's one just around the corner from where I live, probably about seven or eight minutes walk.
And I've been a bee-in-my-eyes user for ages. I've used it for all sorts of things. I've had volunteers help me set my Instant Potts and, you know, help me with colours and things like that.
And I just happened to be, I just happened to get a newsletter and it said, oh, now Tesco is on board. So you can go to Tesco, you can call up an agent and they will help you around the store.
And I thought, yay, this is good. I don't actually have to go to the thing, wait for somebody to come with me and I can just make my way around the store.
So I'm up for trying this. So I went to the store and I opened up, when I got to the store with my guide dog, I opened up Bee My Eyes and I went to the services.
I'd already favourited the Tesco service. It was only on pilot as well for six months at the time.
And I think it was like, please try this because, you know, if it works, we want to make sure that people get the most out of it because we might keep it.
It might stay permanent. So I was like, oh, yay. So I called up the agent and the agent was like, I'm standing outside Tesco Express.
I need you to help me. I need to pick up some double cream. So she said, OK, where are you?
And I said, I'm in Thornton, Clevelies. And she said, OK, so, right.
So I'm standing by the door. She said, right, walk into the door, walk into the store.
And she said, right, go straight ahead of you down the aisle. I can see the fridges are straight ahead of you.
So I did that. She said, right. And I think she must have had, I'm assuming she must have had a layout of each store that she could, that she could access.
Because, you know, I guess they're all laid out kind of the same.
So anyway, she said, right, I need you to turn right. So I turned right.
She said, right, I need you to look towards your left so I can see what's in the fridges.
So I'm looking left. She said, right, I need you to look up.
And we kind of went through this right, look left, look right, look up, right, turn around, go back.
So we went back and she said, I can't see it.
She said, it should be here, right by the milk. This is where it should be.
I says, OK, take your time. Not in a hurry.
And then another assistant came and she was like, are you looking for something?
I was like, yes, I've got an agent on the phone and she's helping me, but we can't find the double cream.
She said, ah, we've moved it.
I said, oh, tell me why you can't find it then.
So it didn't, the actual, her locating the double cream didn't work.
But the very fact that I could just walk in, didn't have to wait for anyone, didn't have to go to the counter, didn't have to, you know, didn't have to just rely on somebody else.
I mean, I did, but it was, you know, that's what they were there for.
I didn't have to just wait for somebody else and kind of just struggle around the shop.
And, you know, it was, it was just, it was freeing.
It was just amazing.
It was just, it was just like, yes, the simplest thing that people take for granted.
And I don't have to put anybody out.
I can just walk into Tesco and I can just go do this thing.
OK, I may have to look and make sure that the agents are around because they're not always open.
But OK, you know, so be it.
It's not perfect, but it's better than it was.
How was it shopping on the glasses?
It was just, it was just really freeing.
Do you know the one thing that I haven't yet done and I'm a little bit reluctant to do it, but I'm sure it could be done.
And I thought, you know, just being able to go into a shop and go, right, this is what I need.
And having somebody there just to walk around, walk me around the shop and tell me where to go.
You know, it's like you say, it's that whole not having to wait for people.
I remember, I think for me, the reason it's really important is because during the pandemic, my husband and I used to go shopping at Aldi.
We're both totally blind.
And we went in and we got it down to a fine art.
We had the same assistant every week.
We could whip around the store in half an hour.
We knew the store so well that we put all our, we kind of listed our shopping in order of shelf and aisle.
That's how well we knew the store.
And then this one day we came in and the pandemic and it was like, nope, sorry, we're not supporting you.
We can't support you.
It's like, what?
You can't do what?
And I remember the anger and the humiliation of that.
And I don't want to be in that position again, ever.
It's humiliating.
We spent hours on the phone to Aldi trying to resolve it.
And then they said they'd resolved it.
And we went back in and the manager walked up to us and says, what are you doing here?
We told you we couldn't support you.
I'm like, oh.
And I went home and I literally walked through the door and I cried.
And I just, I don't ever want to be in that position again.
We'll probably never have a pandemic again like that in our lifetime.
But I don't ever, ever want to be there again.
So what is it like looking around for stuff when you're wearing the Oakley glasses?
Do you find it's a lot easier than just using your phone in your hand?
Oh, my gosh.
Well, I've got a guide dog.
So that is, you know, you've got one hand.
I mean, I don't, I don't carry, I don't go shopping with shopping bags.
I carry backpacks because of the way in which the guide dogs are trained over here.
They are, they use what's called positive reinforcement training.
So you, you have to, well, you don't have to, but you reward your dog for every objective that it completes.
So every time it hits a curb, you reward it.
Every time it goes to a door, you've asked it to find, you reward it.
And so your, your hands are always busy.
So to have that come through the Oakley glasses is just a game changer.
You know, you don't have to worry about where you're looking.
You don't have to worry.
You don't have to go through this whole pantomime of making sure your phone's in the right place.
It's, you know, things are at head height.
You just have to tilt your head a bit.
It's from a physical point of view, it's just so much more easier.
I am very convinced that the people who thought that chest harnesses were a good idea were not women because I, I've always struggled with chest harnesses in the years that I've been looking for them.
I have found one, count them one that actually works.
And now I just worry about none of them because I have glasses, but it's, it really is so much easier, isn't it?
Because like, we're kind of used to turning our heads anyway.
I feel like to kind of follow where somebody might be speaking or might be whatever.
So it's easy to kind of relate that to a spatial thing, isn't it?
I found that when I, when I'm kind of walking around with glasses on that, it's so much easier because it's like, I, you know, it's not their left or my left.
It's not any different.
It's not like, I don't know, with the chest harness, I was always worried that a phone was going to fall off of me or that the harness was going to come undone or it was facing too high or too low.
And you can't, especially when you're short, you can't just like assume that your chest height is going to be the right height to get all the info you need.
There's a thing.
Do you not end up taking it out anyway?
Yeah, exactly.
You end up just having to pull it out and raise it up.
But that just defeats the whole object, right?
Mm-hmm.
Exactly.
And it's better than AirPods because your ears aren't blocked.
Yep.
Although you can use your AirPods for cameras now if you've got the AirPods 3.
But no, honestly, the glasses are a game changer.
I got, I got the Ray-Bans, I got the original meta Ray-Bans back in October 20, when they first came out.
And then I had them.
And then the next year I went back.
Because we bought them in Europe as well.
So the next year we went back and I'd left my metas.
Ah.
And I was like, oh, stupid me.
And it was nearly my birthday and we just happened to walk past the sunglasses and my husband went, should we go and look in?
I was like, yeah, we were with friends of ours that could see.
And I just tried on these pair of Oakleys and they were the white ones with the ruby prism lenses.
So they were reddy, orangey.
And my friend, my best friend for years, she just looked at me and went, oh my God, Kerry, they suit you.
You need to have those glasses.
And I was kind of like, oh, I've always been an Oakley girl anyway, because I like the way that the original glasses wrap.
Because the sun from the sides really bothers me.
So I was like, don't wrap, but, oh.
And my husband just went, do you want them as an early birthday present?
Like, yes, please.
So I went from the Metas to the Oakleys and I love my Oakleys.
I sold my Metas.
I didn't want any money for them, but my sister-in-law insisted.
And she's a bit of a dinosaur, but she's using them now for sorting her clothes and her colours and things like that.
So she's really making good use of them.
And I think she's starting to kind of think about going out in them, you know, just for walking around in glasses and things like that.
That's really cool.
And she's blind as well.
Yes.
Oh, wow.
So my husband's got Metas.
He's just walked back through the door, I think, actually.
He's been on a guide dog client information day and he took his Metas with him.
And so, yeah, we've all got Metas.
I'm the only one with Oakleys, though.
All the others have got Ray-Bans.
I've heard they're really good for photophobia when your eyes are really sensitive to the light.
That's really cool to hear that from folks who've actually used them.
Yes.
My Meta Ray-Bans were a little bit too dark, I thought.
I don't know.
I think they were more polarized than my Oakleys, which presented me with a bit of an issue because I do have a light perception.
And I can do kind of, if I'm going at kind of slow enough speed, I can use it to kind of stop myself from bumping into things or follow people.
But I used to really struggle with my Metas Ray-Bans because they were too dark.
So it's like, right, these are good for blocking out the sun, but actually the note that I'm losing what little vision I've got, my Oakleys are much better.
So have you been using your glasses a lot when you're kind of just like, like, have you used Meta AI a lot when you're kind of walking around with your guide dog and stuff?
Yeah, I use it just the other day.
She just stopped dead.
And I was like, hmm, what's going on?
And I was like, hey, Meta, what's in front of me?
Looks like a triangular sign on the floor.
Oh, OK.
That's why.
So, yeah, I do.
That's so cool.
And, you know, shop names and things.
Absolutely.
I'm just thinking about all the times I've heard friends share stories when their guide dogs have stopped and they're like, Matt, I'll put a step forward and I don't feel a curb.
So I'm not quite sure.
And then there's this like funny little standstill that folks will do for a few minutes just trying to figure out like, OK, can I actually walk?
Am I missing something like could it just be a sheer drop, but just a little beyond where my foot is?
Like, what's the deal?
And so that's really cool.
I've actually never thought about that, that you could use the glasses and just figure out why the dog is stopped.
Because obviously there's a reason, even if it's just that there's a puddle for some dogs.
So, like, it makes you know.
Yeah, there is that.
What's the coolest way that you've used Meta AI?
Probably to take pictures of staging before a show starts.
Oh.
So this is the second time you've mentioned like gigs and shows.
So I'm going to be bookmarking this to ask how this goes for you.
So, like, is this from the side of a performer or from the side of watching a show that you take a picture to see how the staging is?
Watching.
OK.
So before everything starts, you'll just take out your glasses, put them on and ask like kind of how everything is set up.
And is this for a concert or a play or like do you do it for everything?
Both.
Depends where I am.
What was the last one I did it for?
Oh, I went to see a Bruce Springsteen tribute act called The Sound of Springsteen.
So I'm going to take a picture, see what that's like.
But yeah, I tend to be more for theatre performances just because when I'm in, when I'm at gigs, it's,
I'm usually standing.
I'm usually in the, on the picture or in the front somewhere.
And it's like never, probably never going to get a good picture.
Yeah.
I can imagine this is going to be super useful at festival time.
Like just seeing what all the, like how the lights are going and how, like how all the little stages are set up since there will be more than one.
And like which stage you actually want to go to and all of that stuff.
Yeah.
There's only, it's only really one, I think it's only one stage at Lidham, I think.
Oh, that makes it easy.
Oh, cool.
Yeah.
It'd be easy.
But yeah, no, things like, I did something the other week with my, with my metas and I was trying to work out where things were.
Where were we going or what were we doing?
And I was kind of just moving on going, okay, what's in front of me here?
What's here?
What's here?
What was I doing?
I can't even remember what I was doing now.
But yeah, I was just asking where, what was around, like what was around me and just turning around to try and find things.
I actually learned from you something because I've never used my glasses to take a picture of the stage and see what a stage is like.
But I've used being my AI, but I've never used the metas that are on my face so that it's not so obvious.
That would be kind of cool.
Although I'm short.
So do you have to like stand up and try to like, do you just like kind of find a good vantage point on your way in?
What I tend to do is I'll just sit where I am and I will just do a look and describe.
Ah.
Mm-hmm.
And then I'll kind of see what the picture says at that point.
And if it kind of gives me what I think is a good description, I'll then say take a photo.
Oh, cool.
And then you just have it for posterity and you can get it described more later too.
Yeah.
But be my AI, you can't, can you, you can't do that with that.
With your glasses.
Not with the glasses, no.
Not yet.
You can take the photo from your gallery after you've like taken a picture with the glasses.
But yeah, I do that an awful lot.
I've got so many pictures.
Yeah, you too.
I know we're getting closer to the end.
But you mentioned that you had a daughter.
And I'm wondering about how you think, like had you had Meta Ray-Bans and be my eyes and stuff like before.
Well, I mean, be my eyes has been around for 10 years, but 11 years.
But like, but Meta Ray-Bans haven't.
Right.
So I'm wondering, like, in terms of parenting as a blind person, how do you think that would have changed anything about how parenting worked for you?
Or would it not have?
I'm not sure that it would.
When my daughter was growing up.
Because I knew there were so many things that I'd struggled to do, like bike riding in the park, for example.
I threw her into all these dance lessons.
And I actually threw her into one dance lesson.
And she suddenly went, okay, now I want to do this.
And I want to do this.
I want to do this.
My life was spent going backwards and forwards from dance to cheer to gymnastics to.
So, you know, I spent, she was performing on the stage when she was six, seven.
And she's danced at Disney.
Wow.
Have you gotten any pictures of her at, like, at shows described since?
Like, now that you have a way to do it?
I don't have any pictures.
I don't have any pictures of her.
I have loads of DVDs.
I don't know.
I'm sure we must have.
My mum's probably got them because by that stage, it would have been my mum.
I would always get my mum to take those kind of pictures just because I wouldn't want to take a bad picture.
And at the time when she's, she's now 22, she stopped dancing when she was about 14.
So, it was kind of still in its infancy then.
So, a lot of those, a lot of those pictures my mum would have got.
But what we did do the other week was when we were in Ireland, we set the dogs off.
Not my dog.
She wasn't with us.
But we were taking video of the dogs in the water.
Just, you know, listen to where the sound is.
Just point your head in the general direction.
Who knows if it's any good?
Was it good?
Yeah, I think it was all right.
I think it was okay.
I'm sure you got at least one wagging tail.
Oh, splashing in the water and everything they were.
Honestly, I've learned a few things from you about using the glasses.
Because, like, I've shopped with them.
But I've never thought to bring them out during a show.
Or that guide dog owners would be able to just go, hey, why is my dog slowing down?
And why is my dog kind of balking?
So, that's really, really cool.
And I'm sure that folks who are listening are going to learn some things, too.
And I've taken pictures of people who park on the pavements as well.
Oh, she came out.
You know, you can just go back and go, oh, I have the license.
Look at you, you little parking justice vigilante.
Cool.
Well, you know, get my way.
Yeah, do it for all sorts.
Kitchen, use them in the kitchen.
It's so much easier than just getting your phone.
Like, pick up a bottle of wine.
Stick it in front of your face.
Click, click.
Job done.
Somebody said last week, I was talking to them, and they said that they heard from a teacher when they were much younger,
that you aren't truly blind until both of your hands are taken up.
And it really made me think, like, actually, kind of, yeah.
Because, like, you have no way of getting information at that point.
You can't hold anything.
You can't manipulate anything.
So, like, as soon as you have, like, wine in one hand and, like, a corker in the other, you're done.
Like, you can't.
So, if you can just use your glasses and tilt your head down, it works great.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Thank you for coming out and talking with us and sharing your story and teaching us new ways to use our metaglasses.
Thanks for listening to Can You Top This from Be My Eyes.
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