Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Suggestions for 95yo to be able to see sheet music and/or read newspapers, magazines, books (self.Blind)
submitted by IWBTGA
My mom, 95, has diabetic retinopathy. She loves playing the piano but can no longer see the sheet music well enough to be able to play it (and never learned to play by ear). She also has difficulty seeing well enough to enjoy reading in general, and has become somewhat depressed. I am hoping that this community can give me some ideas so that she can see sheet music and/or be able to enjoy general reading, to bring some joy back to her life.
She also has some dementia, and has problems with her dexterity, so she gets very frustrated trying to use small handheld magnifiers or any type of electronics such as an iPad, so we need something that doesn’t really require her to do anything to make it work (she has an aide that can set up a device, but it would need to work with very little action from my mom)
Any suggestions for either general reading or sheet music would be greatly appreciated! Thank you all!
She also has some dementia, and has problems with her dexterity, so she gets very frustrated trying to use small handheld magnifiers or any type of electronics such as an iPad, so we need something that doesn’t really require her to do anything to make it work (she has an aide that can set up a device, but it would need to work with very little action from my mom)
Any suggestions for either general reading or sheet music would be greatly appreciated! Thank you all!
Iamheno 2 points 1y ago
Have you tried “piano glasses”? My MIL had a set of lenses just for reading at piano distance.
IWBTGA [OP] 1 points 1y ago
Thank you for responding! Sadly, the optometrist said that different glasses wouldn’t help.
WorldlyLingonberry40 1 points 1y ago
Check out Newsline. It can be used on a phone. It is easy to navigate with the number pad.
River-Song-1986 1 points 1y ago
In terms of their reading there are organizations like the talking books for the blind that would send her either a CD player or a tape player and books as she can listen to on them. Also, I know she's not good with technology but YouTube does have audio books that are free. I am a huge reader LOL
IWBTGA [OP] 1 points 1y ago
Thank you! I’ve tried to get her to try Audible or podcasts, but so far it’s a no go 😊. She’s pretty stuck in her ways and wants to be able to read like she used to. We can afford an assistive device for her if there were one that that didn’t need her to do much more than flip a page, but I don’t know which ones those would be or if they even exist.
River-Song-1986 1 points 1y ago
If she uses the Kindle it will allow her to flip the pages like if you were actually reading books. And, using voice over will allow the book to read it to her piece by Paige.
TwoSunsRise 1 points 1y ago
There is a voice over on the kindle? I had no idea.
River-Song-1986 1 points 1y ago
I believe so. You would have to look into the accessibility options on the Kindle but I do believe most of them have some form of VoiceOver. I use the Kindle app on my phone so that's where my voice over comes from.
QuentinJamesP89 1 points 1y ago
It's hard to know what would work for others, because everyone's vision is so different, but I've found a few things that are helpful to me. Using a large screen to display very enlarged music in conjunction with a page turner pedal helps a lot. I don't know if her issues with dexterity that you mentioned would make using the pedal difficult. You could also look into modified stave notation which helps when the music is enlarged a great deal. Another idea, though they can get expensive, is a magnifier that you can wear/mount on glasses.
IWBTGA [OP] 1 points 1y ago
Thank you! Could you point me towards where I would find these, and which are good ones? Expensive is OK if they work and are simple enough for her to use them 😊
QuentinJamesP89 1 points 1y ago
https://www.dancingdots.com/limelighter/limelightermain.htm#:~:text=What%20is%20Lime%20Lighter%3F,and%20to%20write%20music%20notation.
If you're willing to go to the trouble you can put together a set up similar to this for much cheaper.
Maxi aids has a large selection of magnifiers.
If you're willing to go to the trouble you can put together a set up similar to this for much cheaper.
Maxi aids has a large selection of magnifiers.
IWBTGA [OP] 1 points 1y ago
Thank you, I'll call them to see if it’s something my mom can operate
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