More stuff for blind people

[Wowbagger]

Aunt Phyllis took a turn for the worse last weekend - at least, her already very poor eyesight did. Her "bad" eye has had no useful vision since her failed detached retina operation in 1960. Her "good" eye has been deteriorating reasonably gradually every since, and probably hasn't been helped by prolonged contact lens use. However, she has been able to read stuff at "point blank range" - up until last Sunday. Last Sunday she woke up and almost all her vision in that eye had disappeared. It has not come back.

The telephone is Phyllis's connection with the outside world. Dez and I have done our best to help her using her existing telephone, but she is now having to do all her dialling by feel, and is making mistakes, even though many of the numbers are stored and accessible by just two button-presses. Phyllis has a remarkable capacity for memorising stuff like this, presumably through more than half a century of having to. However, we were looking into voice activation.

Dez showed her his Iphone and how much if its functionality can be accessed through voice activation. He demonstrated this by telling it to "Call Glenys" (Glenys is Phyllis's baby sister, aged 91) and had a natter. Phyllis is impressed, but I have been looking at the possibility of adding voice activation to her land line, rather than going down the Iphone route. It seems that there is very little available to use voice activation for land lines.

If anyone is aware of anything, please let me know.

[barakta]

I think because smartphones have now all got reasonable voice activation that "specialist blindness products" are all now VERY expensive (and weren't v good to start with).

A voice dialler unit might be your least painful option for an existing landline: http://www.easylinkuk.co.uk/page133.html which is £130, so it's doing the voice recognition bit once programmed.  No idea how reliable they are.

Could this be "early days" and some form of tactile addition to the keys of her existing phone be considered so she can feel which number is which, or some "locational tactile" things which she can use to orient herself before she dials?  This may take a little practice and it is the going through that learning stage while she's processing her change in sight and stress of newness which could be a significant challenge but maybe little and often practice? 

Another idea is to help Phyllis identify when she's made an error, so a talking phone which reads out which key she has pressed. http://shop.rnib.org.uk/catalog/product/view/id/2569/s/rnib-big-button-talking-telephone/category/126/ is £85ish ex VAT (and Phyllis is VAT exempt) and has a manual on the page so you or Dez could RTFM and see if that's a possibility.

Is there a reason that you don't want to go down the smartphone route for Phyllis?  Learning curve? Unable to see/use the phone cos sight? 

I am happy to think/discuss further if I can be any use.  You could also seek advice from RNIB or similar and see if they have any ideas specifically.

[Kim]

I'd be tempted to try to improve the tactility/feedback of the keypad, rather than use voice activation, on the basis that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from an expensive pile of buggy crap.

Big button phone with tacticle/braille numbers stuck on it?  Simple keypad with voice feedback of what you're doing?

Alternatively, she could just learn to whistle DTMF.  Everyone knows that blind people are awesome phone phreakers.   

[Wowbagger]

Phyllis is now the proud owner of an Iphone 5s (or will be when it arrives tomorrow) and a Virgin unlimited calls account for £12 a month. We will be setting up all her contacts on the phone. It will also help her with cooking, as she can use the voice-activated timer for microwaving stuff.

[Kim]

Top tip:  Do not microwave your iPhone.  They don't like it.

[Wowbagger]

Phyllis's phone arrived today, about 3pm. I was teaching and then I had to do her shopping. I phoned her on leaving Waitrose and she sounded quite cheerful. At the end of the call something happened - I think she dropped the phone. She was clearly under the impression that I couldn't hear her any more.

"Bugger, blast, hell and damnation to it all!" said she.

Phyllis is normally very stoical about the problems associated with her extreme age and blindness, and puts on a very cheerful face most of the time, so it was a bit of a shock hearing one's nonagenarian maiden aunt coming out with such fine invective.

She has her numbers in her phone and it is working, but I suspect that there will be a few teething problems. She did successfully phone her friend Zoe using voice dialling.

[hellymedic]

Will Phyllis be wearing this phone on a lanyard?
I have found a lanyard useful.

[Wowbagger]

I hadn't though of that. Does an Iphone have a lanyard attachment point?

[hellymedic]

I'll have a look at David's iPhone4 when he returns.
Fitting a lanyard can be fiddly.
Strikes me that Phyllis would benefit from somehow making phone undroppable/unlosable while she's up & dressed.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

iPhones don't have a lanyard fitting but put it in a cheap case that does.

[fuaran]

Also some sort of rubber case could make it easier to grip. Plus give a bit of protection if its dropped. IPhones can be rather shiny and slippery.