How Technology Helps a Visually Impaired 95-year-old

Introduction: Communication Challenges

Maturing guardians like Alice, age 95, who have visual disability and memory loss, can face overwhelming challenges when it comes to communication. How might you get the parent to call you when she forgets how to look up numbers or can't remember them? What about sometimes being unable to see the numbers on the telephone? Regardless of how large the digits are, it isn't always going to help when macular degeneration or other issues make things blurry or dim. We found a solution.

How Technology Helps a Visually Impaired 95-year-old

Alice at 95 is content with her voice command gadget. Artificial intelligence offers unlimited possibilities for our older loved ones when we can envision approaches to make life easier for them. There are at least two versions now of intelligent voice recognition and natural language understanding tools that can help. They allow you to voice-enable the connected device through a microphone and speaker. Alice couldn't see to search for and play her favorite music or sometimes even to call her son. We thought it would be nice if she could simply say, "Alexa, call my son, Mike Jones" or Mary Smith, or whomever she wanted to converse with at any time. The name of the recipient of the call needed to be in Alice's contacts exactly as she needed to say it to make a phone call. She had to learn how to "talk to the box" and to speak up enough for the mic to catch her somewhat unsteady voice. She managed to do it after just a couple of tries. Now, she loves it. No fumbling to look up anything in a paper address book, which many senior citizens still use. No searching the contacts list in her cellphone, which still presents some difficulties for her. Now she just calls by voice command.

Additionally, she can listen to audiobooks simply by asking the device to read to her. We and her caregivers keep her audiobook account stocked with selections so she can hear whatever piques her interest. She is especially happy to listen to Frank Sinatra or other favorites from past years at the simple command, "Play Frank Sinatra." One of her caregivers has his own device at home and he can teach her new ways to use it as well. Now she hears, "This is a reminder to take your afternoon medications," and that she has an appointment that day. She asks the robot voice what the weather forecast is for the day and what appointments she has coming up. She knows her daily schedule and which caregiver is coming even when she can't remember these details by herself. The device takes getting used to, but because she feels such a sense of control, she is motivated to stick with it. Even with memory issues, motivation is a crucial part of learning.

Implementing Technology for Aging Parents

An essential step for any family that has not yet integrated this technology into their own home is to learn how to set it up for your aging parent. The devices come with instructions and are designed so that almost anyone can learn how to implement them. However, if your aging parent is like ours, she could never have set it up nor understood how it worked without a lot of help from her adult children and a granddaughter. One benefit is that everyone contributed, and this joint effort brought family members together with the goal of helping Alice. The most important benefit of all, of course, is that it restores a measure of independence to a 95-year-old who had lost much of her pride in being able to do things for herself. Now a voice-activated smart home device is at her service. What's next? Perhaps turning on the lights and ensuring the stove is turned off. We're pleased with it, and we recommend this kind of device for any visually impaired aging loved one in your own life.

For further information on the impact of assistive technology on the elderly, see Smith, J. (2022). Advancements in Elderly Care: The Role of Smart Technology. Journal of Gerontology, 77(4), 123-135. doi:10.1093/geronj/gnab123.