Digital Buddy Case Study – Julie

Digital Buddy Case Study Julie has only been diagnosed for a year. Referred by the rehabilitation team. 

Vista offers a Digital Buddy Service which is a volunteer-led support service to help people with sight loss become more digitally savvy, so they can overcome the challenges of everyday life. 

Julie was diagnosed with Glaucoma last year, and had accessed the Vista’s rehabilitation service for adjustments in her home and with technology.  Julie was having difficulty using the technology provided by charitable funds, namely the reader on her tablet and her iPhone, therefore she was referred to the Digital Buddy Service. 

Julie became frustrated at having technology that was taking too much time to use, ultimately not helping her with reading documents or capable of scanning bar codes when shopping. During the digital buddy assessment it became apparent that Julie would benefit from using the seeing ‘AI application’ on her iPhone. 

Our digital buddies assisted in downloading the ‘seeing AI app’ and when Julie had listened and watched the tutorials, there was an immediate change in confidence. Julie was thrilled with the application’s ability to read short text as well as larger documents, in a rapid response time. In addition Julie found the largest benefit from the fast barcode reading aspect of the app, which has been very helpful when shopping.

Julie now uses the ‘seeing AI’ app when out shopping and said “It’s the best thing ever and I have been scanning everything, I am absolutely loving the new app. I have been taking photos of everything as well. Thank you”

Seeing AI is a free app for the iphone and ipad that narrates the world around you. Designed for the sight loss and low vision community, this ongoing research project harnesses the power of Artificial Intelligence to open up the visual world. Optimised for use with VoiceOver, the app enables you to recognise: short text, documents, people, scenes, bar codes, currency, colours, light and handwriting.

For more information regarding the Digital Buddy scheme please contact: 

Ian Watts on 07715078845 or email  digitalbuddy@vistablind.org.uk