Having seen the discussion about digital cameras I wondered if anyone had come across a 'big button' mobile phone.  My father lives in a nursing home and would appreciate a mobile for easier contact with friends and family but it needs to have big buttons (a stroke has done for his fine motor movements), a big and clear display, and preferably a decent amount of volume for actual conversations (Dad being a bit hard of hearing these days).  Seems the mobile industry's idea of 'big buttons' is simply not mine.  Anyone come across anything? TriciaRJ

 

Yes the offer on the market is appalling, from this point of view. One phone I know that was supposedly designed for elderly users, the Sagem VS1, still falls short of the mark _especially_ as button size is concerned.

 

Nokia has a page called www.nokiaaccessibility.com which claims to address special-needs users, but both the page and most of the phones being offered seem to have been designed by teenage droids who never had a parent or a grandparent.

 

 

I suggest having a look (note: I am not recommending them because I don't know them; I just suggest it may be worth checking) - at one of the "fixed mobile" phones, i.e. ones that use the mobile network but are meant for use in the home. One such phone is the Sagem myH 10L.

Another product you may find interesting is a device (not sure what it is called) that connects wirelessly to the mobile network and has a socket into which you can plug an ordinary fixed-line phone of your choice.

 

If you have the patience and the nerve, you will do all of us a favour by calling various mobile phone operators and sales outlets with your questions. Eventually, the message will filter up their chain of command and bear fruit.

 

Good luck, you'll need a lot of it.

Leszek.

 

Well, I can't claim to have cracked it completely but I believe I've tracked something down.  The people at Which? came up trumps with the following review which they originally published on 19th July this year:

An easy to use mobile phone designed specifically for the older generation goes on sale in the UK this week.
The Emporia Life is described as a ‘no-nonsense, back-to-basics alternative’ to the plethora of tiny, feature packed phones flooding the market.
It has a large screen and display, oversized and easy to use buttons, and a super loud speaker and ring volume. The phone also has a powerful vibration alert to ensure the owner knows when someone is calling.
It has an orange backlight to help people with sight problems, and the phone has added features for those with hearing difficulties and is compatible with digital hearing aids.
The Emporia Life also has a unique emergency button on the back of the phone.
By pushing the large red button it can call up to five designated numbers for help and can also be programmed to send off a pre-written text to another mobile phone asking for assistance.
The Emporia Life is now available directly from Communic8 Ltd on a Vodafone Pay as you Talk package at £169.99.
Which? researcher Jon Barrow said: 'It's great to see that at least one manufacturer has recognised that Britain has an ageing population and that many people want simple, practical mobile phones rather than handsets crammed with extra functions they'll never use.'
It's certainly not the cheapest thing you'll ever see but certainly looks the part (O2 claim that their Jet series is aimed at over 50s but they rather miss the point - the Jet is certainly a simplified phone but the actual hardware is not that different from every other one on the market).

The bad news is that this phone is only available directly from Communic8 Ltd or the RNIB because the high street retailers don't think it fits into the target customer range.  This says considerably more about the retailers than it does about this handset. 

Tricia

Found a great site http://www.bigbuttonmobile.co.uk

Really friendly company I brought one for my granddad and he is chuffed to bits.

www.bigbuttonmobile.co.uk

Please be reassured, i work for a big mobile phone company (beginning with N ;o). There will hopefully be a really great product for elders released this year. Well, it will be great if I have anything to do with it. I aspire to champion the needs of such users - which in a big corporation can be difficult but worthwhile.

If it's the same N*** that runs the N***accessibility.com website, then you still have some work to do. Hope your definition of "elders" includes octagenarians and not just people over 35. Please pardon my bitterness, but I have worn out more than one pair of shoe soles looking for senior-friendly electronic appliances of all sorts, not just phones.

 

Wishing you the best of luck. Feel free to ask as many questions here as you can think of - I am eager to answer whenever I can, and I am sure others around here will.

 

And keep us posted when the device hits the market. I hope the moderators will tolerate a brief plug for this one - if it is what you say it will be, it's the longest-awaited thing since the end of the Plague.

 

Cheers, Leszek.