Be My Eyes Partners with Accessible Pharmacy Services to Bring End to End Pharmacy Access to People with Vision Loss
The physical pharmacy contains barriers to access to people with vision loss and the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the ability of people with vision loss to accurately manage their medical concerns. For these reasons, Be My Eyes has recently welcomed their first partner pharmacy onto their app. Be My Eyes users in the United States will be able to ask their questions about medicine, drug interactions, even order in-home COVID tests from trained professionals who know how to safely and effectively set up blind individuals for success. Be My Eyes is happy to announce their newest Specialized Help partner, Accessible Pharmacy Services.
You probably know the story of Hans Jørgen, the blind craftsman who conceived of Be My Eyes in Denmark in 2012; we have written about him and his company several times in AccessWorld in fact. But you might not know the story of Alex Cohen, the blind man behind Accessible Pharmacy.
When Alex Cohen was pursuing his Ph.D. in marketing with the goal of becoming a college professor, his dissertation research dealt with examining the accessibility of both the online and physical marketplace and how they could be made more inclusive for the blind and low vision community. After achieving his doctorate he continued his research in this area, and repeatedly uncovered both practical and philosophical obstacles to implementing these solutions. Importantly, through his research and own lived experience, he discovered that these accessibility-related shortcomings were particularly apparent in pharmacies. Yes, accessibility and inclusion is important in all aspects of the retailing marketplace, but when you’re dealing with healthcare-related services and medication management the importance grows exponentially.
Deciding that continued efforts trying to make the existing pharmacy marketplace more accessible was far too exhausting, Cohen came together with his business partners to create a brand new marketplace specially made for the blind and low vision community. They wanted to create a community where high quality medication management services are individually crafted to meet the unique needs of every patient, and where accessibility and inclusion are never an afterthought. This is how Accessible Pharmacy Services got its start.
In 2020, Accessible Pharmacy launched as a comprehensive, home delivery pharmacy service specializing in the needs of people who are blind or have low vision. Accessible Pharmacy offers free home delivery of prescription medication, OTC medication, Accessible Pharmacy brand vitamins, supplements, small home medical devices, and COVID home tests. Furthermore, they offer more than 10 different types of accessible packaging, including ScripTalk.
Accessible Pharmacy’s team is available for blind and low-vision Be My Eyes users in the US – you don’t even have to be an Accessible Pharmacy patient. Accessible Pharmacy can answer any questions you might have related to medicines, vitamins and supplements, as well as guide you through the services they offer and your home COVID-19 test.
Making a call to Accessible Pharmacy through Be My Eyes is easy. Just open the Be My Eyes app, enter the Specialized Help menu, and locate Accessible Pharmacy in the Personal Health Category. The Accessible Pharmacy team is ready to take your call Monday through Friday from 10am to 3pm ET. For more information on this new service, see the Accessible Pharmacy Services website.
