Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Help finding a phone to make calls - doesn't need to be a smart phone. (self.Blind)
submitted by Just_a_Rat
Hi all - a little background - my parents are odler (Dad is 85, mom is 77) and my mother is blind due to retinitis pigmentsa - at her age, and combined with some other issues, this has resulted in basically complete blindness - in the right ligthing she can sort of see shadows, but nothing more, and in dim lighting, complete blindness.
My father is starting to have some health problems, and while their home phone is able to be dialed by voice, they (and I) would feel a lot better if my mother had a cell phone that could dial by voice command very easily. Any functions beyond that would most likely get in the way - if a smart phone has a one-button or purely voice activated way to do this, it would work, but anything more would be a waste.
To add to the complications, neither my sister nor I live near them, so ongoing maintenance can be a challenge, although there are lots of people who would be happy to help them set it up. Oh, and also, my mother seemingly has no readable fingerprints, so a phone that relies on that particular biometric will not work. Apparently, they have tried over a dozen times at various airports to get a read on her fingerprints, and it never works.
Any suggestions? Siri on iPhone? Some older-model phone that can be flipped open and immediately ready to take a voice command? Any suggestions welcome.
My father is starting to have some health problems, and while their home phone is able to be dialed by voice, they (and I) would feel a lot better if my mother had a cell phone that could dial by voice command very easily. Any functions beyond that would most likely get in the way - if a smart phone has a one-button or purely voice activated way to do this, it would work, but anything more would be a waste.
To add to the complications, neither my sister nor I live near them, so ongoing maintenance can be a challenge, although there are lots of people who would be happy to help them set it up. Oh, and also, my mother seemingly has no readable fingerprints, so a phone that relies on that particular biometric will not work. Apparently, they have tried over a dozen times at various airports to get a read on her fingerprints, and it never works.
Any suggestions? Siri on iPhone? Some older-model phone that can be flipped open and immediately ready to take a voice command? Any suggestions welcome.
CosmicBunny97 1 points 3y ago
There are phones designs for the blind (I don’t remember any names butThe Blind Life has some videos on them). I don’t know much about the prices or whether you can get funding for them, but it’s just a suggestion :)
Just_a_Rat [OP] 1 points 3y ago
Thank you. Definitely looking into this.
CosmicBunny97 1 points 3y ago
Good luck :)
Envrin 1 points 3y ago
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Any phone, cell or land line that has buttons you can feel?
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If all she needs a phone for is to make and receive calls, then just one of those cheap / free flip phones should be just fine. They all have a little bump on the 5 button, so you can dial completely blind without problem.
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Otherwise, iPhone works just fine, just turn security features like PIN code off. Then you can just tell Siri, "Dial Jenny", and it'll make the call.
Any phone, cell or land line that has buttons you can feel?
​
If all she needs a phone for is to make and receive calls, then just one of those cheap / free flip phones should be just fine. They all have a little bump on the 5 button, so you can dial completely blind without problem.
​
Otherwise, iPhone works just fine, just turn security features like PIN code off. Then you can just tell Siri, "Dial Jenny", and it'll make the call.
Just_a_Rat [OP] 1 points 3y ago
Thanks. I expect her to not use it very often, so there might be a challenge with remembering numbers. Siri is probably the best solution.
Laser_Lens_4 1 points 3y ago
The only non-Smartphone phone I know of that /might/ fit the bill is this $1 but I don't know a whole lot about it.
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Personally, I'd just get them an iPhone with face recognition, like u/fainting-goat suggested. Siri isn't great, but she's good enough for voice dialing, and you can stick Google Assistant on there if they want more advanced web search.
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Personally, I'd just get them an iPhone with face recognition, like u/fainting-goat suggested. Siri isn't great, but she's good enough for voice dialing, and you can stick Google Assistant on there if they want more advanced web search.
fainting-goat 1 points 3y ago
An iPhone with face recognition, a well managed set of contacts, and Siri should be able to cover your needs. She won't need to log into the phone in order to use Siri to call someone, but the facial recognition should get her around logging in for other things the phone might need to do.
The models that would do this for her would be the X, XR, and 11 (but not the new SE, that has a fingerprint scanner)
The models that would do this for her would be the X, XR, and 11 (but not the new SE, that has a fingerprint scanner)
Just_a_Rat [OP] 1 points 3y ago
Thanks!
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