One of my aging parents needs a cell phone. She's resisted this long because of cost, but now that her health is seriously failing...she falls down a lot...she wants a phone on her where ever she goes.

A simple flip phone is too complicated for her. The use of icons to turn it on/off is confusing, soft keys are confusing, and the buttons/text is too small.

I'm thinking android with one home screen full of speed dial contacts. But the carriers won't let her run an android without data plan that she doesn't need and won't use.

Ideas?

 

Maybe: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-mobil...nior-citizens/

 

an android phone would be to complicated.
My mother is GREAT with computers, as she deals with computers and software and hardware all day long.

when we upgraded to an android phone; I felt so frustrated helping her.
She has it down pat, now.
but it took a couple of months.

 

Revisit the flip phone. My MIL with Alzheimer's uses one.

 

Jitterbug?

 

Forget the smartphone. My MIL has one, she hates it.

If your mom falls she probably won't be in any condition to make a phone call anyway. How is she going to get it out of her purse/pocket when she is lying on the ground with possible serious injury? If she falls in public she is probably going to need someone else to make the call no matter if she has a phone or not.

For falls at home you should look into http://www.lifealert.com/

Edit: Looks like Life Alert even has a cell phone that never needs charging. This may be the solution for falls in public. http://www.lifealert.com/911phone.aspx

 

I agree and had her consider this, but given the cost of the monitoring service ($30-50 per month) she decided she wants a phone instead. I figured a 911 speed dial on the phone should help.

I also saw an launcher app that makes the home screen like four or six big icons for 911 and some speed dials. Should be pretty simple but things I take for granted as being common knowledge baffle her. The cordless phone she has now causes her trouble. It really needs to be old school land line simple. keep the ideas coming please.

 

If you do decide to go with an Android phone, take a look at Big Launcher which will do exactly what you wanted:


https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...5hY3Rpdml0eSJd

With that said, I'm not sure if a smartphone would be appropriate They're too fragile for the situations you mentioned (falling down a lot).