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Help me find a big-button phone for my elderly father

  • My father has been using a http://www.featurepics.com/FI/Thumb300/20070121/Plain-Old-Black-Phone-196513.jpg for decades. He's been somewhat visually impaired for a long time, but recently he started receiving an eye treatment in his one good eye that has reduced his vision even further. He also has low dexterity (though his mind's still totally sharp) due to a stroke earlier this year. He needs a new phone. Help! What It Should Have Almost nothing. I'm basically looking for the ultimate dumbphone, as opposed to anything with any "smart" features whatsoever. What I need is a corded, high-contrast, big-button phone, with separated buttons, for someone who's only been using a standard, old-school, 12-button, keypad-only phone, who gets easily confused and discouraged (or at least has less than satisfactory results) when other buttons are added. It would be nice if it had decent sound quality. He has most phone numbers he needs memorized, and I'd like to give him a reason to keep his memory active. If he could speak the individual numerals to dial, a voice-dialing phone could potentially work, but I also like that a phone you have to physically dial gives him a reason to use and build his fine motor skills. What It Should Not Have Just about everything. This phone does not need functions such as speed dial, caller ID, voicemail, redial, speakerphone, hold, memory, mute, or flash, and in fact, such features are actively detrimental. It should not have features like a http://www.amazon.com/review/RZ35WBHZGQOIQ/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B004QR4M84&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag=. It just needs the 12-button standard keypad. In previous threads about phones like this, I've seen people recommend phones where you can speak to dial; while I've looked at http://www.ablephone.com/model5000.php, for now, I'd probably rather use something that doesn't require my father to record a bunch of things or do a lot of configuration. (And those can be pretty expensive as well.) Others have recommended those phones where you can touch a picture to dial that person's number, but right now, I don't think he can see well enough to use that, and I don't like that it would limit him to calling just a few people. What It Could Look Like http://www.oempromo.com/product/Phones/P/Premium-Big-Button-Phone-204256.htm is the closest thing I've found in appearance, and it's not something that I can actually buy; it also has extra buttons that could get accidentally pushed. Same with http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000YL7ZJY/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/; it's close, but doesn't have as much contrast as I'd like, the big buttons are a bit too flat, and it has extra buttons. Does anyone make a big-button phone with a keypad only? http://ask.metafilter.com/15696/Big-Button-Cellphones#268566 in a 2005 thread on this topic, basically some kind of working simple child's phone would be amazing. Barring that, another option could be a phone with only a few extra buttons that I could feasibly disable with putty like Sugru. But even having those little bumps or a ridge of putty there could be confusing. Other Relevant Info When my father was recently in the hospital, before he started this eye treatment, he did pretty well with a single-piece phone http://www.rakuten.com/prod/green-connection-med-pat-one-piece-hospital-hotel-motel-phone-xl2050/246331057.html, with a single big button to start and end a call, except that it was too wide for him to hold comfortably (he has an old hand injury, and his dexterity has been impaired by the stroke). The smaller buttons would also probably be too difficult for him to see and push now. I'd previously been looking for a cordless phone, and http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000RQD360/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ was the closest I could find to what I imagined might work (a simple keypad-only phone with one big button to start and end calls), but it's no longer available, and the buttons are also probably too small for his needs now (and yet again, there are extra buttons). TL;DR After reading through previous AskMe threads and many Amazon phone reviews, I know there are other people out there who want an extremely simple big-button phone like I've described. I just don't know whether any company has seen fit to make one available yet! Your help in finding something that might work for my father is greatly appreciated!

  • Answer:

    Would you be open to something used, like http://www.ebay.com/itm/AT-T-PL3004-Pl-3004-BIG-LARGE-KEYPAD-BUTTONS-PHONE-WORKS-VISION-IMPAIRED-/221305459952 or http://www.ebay.com/itm/Conair-Retro-Multi-Colored-Handset-Push-Big-Button-SW2006-Phone-EUC-/161148949999 or http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-RADIO-SHACK-43-344A-BIG-BUTTON-CORDED-PHONE-/261332656803?

limeonaire at Ask.Metafilter.Com Visit the source

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If you can find the first option that primethyme gave (the AT&T PL3004), jump on it. It's the phone my grandmother (macular degeneration) used for the last 15 years of her life. You may also want to consider a desk lamp next to the phone that he can turn on when he needs to dial a number.

kuanes

Oo, yes. Used options definitely have potential!

limeonaire

Would you consider a phone (like http://www.oempromo.com/product/Phones/P/Premium-Big-Button-Phone-204256.htm you linked to) which is perfect except for extraneous buttons, and then popping off the faceplate of the phone and removing those buttons and replacing the cover? So you just have holes where those extra buttons would be?

misterbrandt

There are several websites that have big button phones. One is 101phones.com. Also search on phones for visually impaired. You can find both corded and cordless.

My Harley

Thank you for all the answers so far. I went ahead and ordered a used AT&T PL3004 from eBay last night, so hopefully that'll arrive soon and work! I'll report back; I know I can't be the only person who wants something like this. I asked this question because I've already spent hours browsing sites that have newer big-button phones, including 101phones.com (sorry, I should've listed them, but I didn't keep track!), but so far all of the new phones I've seen have at least a few extraneous little buttons. It actually kind of makes me angry to see so many companies marketing such phones as being useful to people with low to no vision and/or impaired dexterity. I understand that today's phone systems have added features, but I think many older disabled people just want a phone that they can use—and in that regard, it looks like corded phone design reached its peak usefulness about 25 years ago. (And as far as cordless phones are concerned, I haven't been able to find any company making a genuine effort to create a phone that isn't a mass of tiny extra buttons.) Re: removing buttons, that is one option; that's what the guy in the linked review did with the 911 button on his father's phone. And I could potentially cover the holes that are left with Sugru, so he doesn't accidentally scrape his hand on the edges. But buying a phone that I have to mod to make it workable definitely isn't my first choice. I guess I'm just disappointed with the marketplace right now—and genuinely frustrated that it's been this hard to find a good phone for my father. For years, people have been talking about the arriving wave of retiring baby boomers, and the challenges those older adults face, including declining vision and dexterity. But it doesn't seem like a lot of thought is being put into what would actually be useful to them; it seems like a lot of hand-waving, kludgy "solutions" are being marketed to family members who presumably don't know any better. I feel like there's a real market out there for serious, simple solutions to these sorts of problems.

limeonaire

I don't know if this will ever be resolved, per se, but as I noted in November, I did buy an AT&T PL3004 on eBay for my father. The phone works, but I actually swapped it out for his original phone after he tried it for a few days—unfortunately, the buttons on the PL3004 are so close together and so flat on top, he has trouble telling them apart by feel, and even his care managers and I have had trouble telling when a button has been pushed down all the way (there's some play in them, so they rock back and forth a little when you press), so it's hard to dial properly. And unfortunately, with his weak grip, he had trouble holding onto the handset, since it has a thick center and fairly slick plastic. At least with the original phone, he can feel the difference between the buttons and has an instinctive sense, after using it for years, of how far to reach to dial, even if he can't see it well. This is morbid, but my thought on the way home today was that maybe the phone companies just figure all the old fogies are going to die soon anyway, so why bother coming up with solutions for them? I feel like it's a bigger market than they might think, though.

limeonaire

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