New app from Save-On-Foods helps visually-impaired shoppers

Save-On-Foods has introduced SeeWithMe, an app developed by a BC teenager that helps blind and visually impaired customers do their shopping by reading barcodes aloud.

The app was developed by Ethan Hinchliff, a 16-year-old White Rock Christian Academy student, who turned to technology when he learned that his visually impaired friend was having a hard time finding the right items while shopping. Many items, such as canned or boxed foods, are impossible to tell apart.

After searching Apple’s App Store, the two tried the iPhone’s VoiceOver built-in accessibility feature, but found it too difficult and confusing to use.

Hinchcliff decided to go ahead and make an app without text or buttons that would allow his friend to select the products she wanted.

SeeWithMe reads product names aloud when the user scans a barcode with a smartphone. It uses a database of thousands of product names and barcodes provided by Save-On-Foods.





“Supporting local innovators and entrepreneurs is so important to Save-On-Foods, and when Ethan brought us the opportunity to help him with SeeWithMe, we knew he shared our commitment to being a good neighbour and going the extra mile for our customers,” said Save-On-Foods vice president of marketing Dan Howe, in a statement.

The app is available thought the App Store and Google Play store for Android devices.

SeeWithMe can be opened by voice command and the app alerts when the barcode has been scanned when the user moves the phone around the product. It then announces the product name.

Sighted family members or friends can log in to the app’s website seewithmeapp.com to add the barcode and the product name for any products that are missing.

Most products from Save-On, Overwaitea and PriceSmart stores can be scanned by the app, excluding items packaged in-store, such as from the deli and bakery departments.

The app can also be used at home on products without a barcode, from CDs to medication, that the visually impaired need help in identifying.