On World Sight Day, we’re celebrating two brands who are giving the power of sight and greater accessibility back to our consumers with low to no vision.
For the last 30 years, Clearblue® has earned its reputation as the World’s No.1 selling brand in home pregnancy and fertility tests. Consumers trust the Clearblue brand because it delivers the accurate information they want. The Clearblue product range is built on a strong foundation of peer-reviewed science and consumer understanding. Which is why the brand ventured to address the needs of consumers with low to no vision - nearly four million American women today.¹
World Sight Day 2019 – Clearblue Partners with Be My Eyes
Today on #WorldSightDay2019, Clearblue is pleased to announce the launch of a new accessible service, in partnership with Be My Eyes, which helps vision-impaired women be the first to learn their pregnancy test results in a more private setting. Be My Eyes is a free app that connects blind and low-vision people with sighted volunteers or company representatives for vision assistance through a live phone connection.
Women who take a Clearblue pregnancy test can make a video call to a Clearblue expert advisor through the Specialized Help function in the app. From there, the Clearblue advisor will read the pregnancy test result to them or answer their questions about taking the test, alleviating the stress of having to rely on friends and family for help.
One of our employees and a champion of this partnership is Sumaira (Sam) Latif, P&G’s Accessibility Leader. As a vision-impaired woman herself, Sam personally experienced the difficult task of taking a pregnancy test without family in town to help her. After arriving at a local pharmacy for her test results, the pharmacist declined to help her.
“No matter the outcome, taking a pregnancy test is an emotional and a deeply personal experience, and the result should be something you share on your own terms,” Sam said. “We want Clearblue pregnancy tests to become accessible to everyone, including the four million American women that live with a visual disability,1 and we want to serve them.”
Clearblue Careline Manager, Sally Haworth, noted that members of the blind community also brought this issue to the brand’s attention.
The Clearblue partnership with Be My Eyes is not only revolutionary for the brand, but for vision impaired women in English speaking countries across the globe. Blind and low-vision women now have an option to receive their test results in a safe, private space with no judgment and full support from Clearblue Customer support advisors.
To learn more about the Clearblue partnership, please visit Clearblue.com. To download the Be My Eyes app, visit the App Store on iOS or Android, and join the conversation by using the hashtags #ClearblueConfirmed, #BeMyEyes and #WorldSightDay2019.
HERBAL ESSENCES
Sam Latif is also helping Herbal Essences to pioneer a new way forward, actively creating products and features to meet the needs of people with disabilities. In addition to their previous launch as the first mass hair care brand to produce bottles with tactile markings, they are embracing technology like Alexa and the Be My Eyes app, making hair care easier for people with low to no vision. These new tools make it easier for everyone to browse Instagram, shop, shower and even style their hair by designing for those that are vision impaired.
The universal tactile markings on our shampoo and conditioner bottles make a tremendous difference in the lives of our consumers. Beginning in January 2020, all Herbal Essences shampoos and conditioners will have tactile differentiations to alleviate in-shower confusion and help consumers, especially those with low vision, confidently perform daily tasks.
This year, Herbal Essences is serving the consumer beyond the shower with some technology that will make searching for the perfect product and independently shopping more accessible with the introduction of an Alexa skill and specialized help on the By My Eyes app. Knowing the importance of audio assistance, the new Amazon skill allows consumers to ask questions about Herbal Essences’ products, ingredients and benefits, as well as get personalized recommendations.
Herbal Essences has gone a step beyond with a specialized help feature in the Be My Eyes app that directly connects blind users with in-house experts to get assistance as they shop in-store, get ready at home or have hair care questions throughout the day.
“We get a lot of questions through the app about people’s appearance – do my clothes match, does my make-up look right, is my part in the center… It’s great when we can have experts from a specific, in-demand field, like hair care, to provide an elevated level of service for our community,” said Will Butler, VP Community, Be My Eyes.
“We hope other brands will take note of this effort in making their products and themselves more accessible to this community in an effort to truly serve all consumers.”
To learn more about this initiative, please visit https://herbalessences.com/en-us/, and join the conversation using #HerbalEssences and #WorldSightDay.
¹ According to the National Federation for the Blind.
