You're listening to a Community Story from Be My Eyes. Hi, I'm Sana Duncan. I've been totally blind since birth. 

I'm a mom of two boys and I work full-time as the Global Chief Privacy Officer at a company called WSP, which is a multinational engineering and professional services firm. So in my role, I lead WSP's global privacy program and also lead on AI governance. I'm not the most technical person and often when there's new technology, I'm not the first one to use it. 

And I think Be My Eyes and Be My AI was out there for quite a while before I discovered it. And it was only because I saw one of my friends using it to check actually of all things, whether her lipstick was applied correctly. And I thought, wow, I'm missing something here. 

I should be using this. And ever since that day, I don't think there's a day that goes by that I don't use Be My AI or Be My Eyes in some capacity. I think it's literally become a part of my life and I actually wish that I had started using it sooner. 

And I think sometimes there's a reluctance to learn a new technology because obviously it takes time and investment to learn anything new. But in the end, it always saves time. So I would encourage people to really look at Be My Eyes and explore all the options that are available. 

I think they'll be super useful in daily life and for many people in their work life as well, where they don't have specific restrictions. So now I use Be My AI all the time for so many things. One of my favorites is the picture description. 

So anytime I receive any photos or images from people, I always use the describe with Be My Eyes function. And I love that you can then probe it further and ask questions and really find out more detail from an image. And actually recently, another way I've been using it is if I'm shopping on a website and there are images of clothing or other products that I'm trying to buy, I use it, the describe with Be My Eyes function to interrogate the picture more and see if it, if the item is something that I actually want to buy. 

And because sometimes the descriptions on the websites aren't always very full. So, you know, for example, yesterday I was looking for a coat and I wanted to know whether the coat had a belt or what color the zips and the buttons were, etc. And I find it really helpful. 

So I do travel a lot. I travel personally with my family, but I also travel for work quite a lot. So again, I find it really useful for things like looking at display panels in hotel rooms that are touch screen or reading a document.

I used it once because I was trying to call reception and I couldn't figure out what number you had to dial. And then there was like a card, you know, near the phone and I just sort of waved the camera and actually managed to find the information that I needed. So I find, you know, sometimes it's easy to forget that it's there, but when I do use it, I feel really good because it means that I can independently work something out. 

And it's really helpful on my travels as well, because you can literally take a picture of anything and it will describe it. So be that text or images or your surroundings. It's very useful. 

You can use Be My Eyes for very personal matters as well. For example, if, you know, something isn't quite looking right on your skin or something really personal to you that you really need a sighted person's help with, but it's too personal to show somebody sighted. I think that's another area in which this is extremely liberating for blind people, because instead of having to discuss your personal matters or show somebody something that's very personal, you can just take a picture and ask Be My Eyes or Be My AI to help tell you what it can see. 

And I think that is an amazing feature as well, because there are plenty of times, and especially, I mean, I'm 44. So in my lifetime, there have been plenty of opportunities where in the past, you would have to get somebody's assistance to buy personal items, to get assistance with something that's really personal to you. And I think this is certainly very helpful as well in that respect.

I think one thing I want to say just in summary is it's an app that is a complete game changer. You know, there are so many things you can do with it. For example, once to show my colleagues actually who were sighted how Be My Eyes works, I took a picture of a dessert platter, and it literally described from the top to the bottom what each dessert was. 

So for example, it said top left looks like a chocolate cheesecake. You know, that kind of thing is really helpful, because obviously, when you're in a situation where there's maybe lots of food or lots of items, and you can't really pinpoint what it is you want, then perhaps that's a way to at least narrow it down. So yeah, I feel like there's lots of functionality there. 

And hopefully, it will continue to grow and develop, and there'll be more and more useful things that we can use. Thank you for listening to this Community Story from Be My Eyes. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, download our app, or visit our website for more.