Melbourne

I just thought of something. Everything now is sleek and touch screens, but perhaps if you went for technology that was a bit older it would have raised tactile buttons that your mum could feel so she could control it. You don’t even have to look.

You can get old iPod shuffles or generic mp3 players off eBay and they clip to clothing so she can’t drop and lose it. I did have a generic mp3 player that ran off a simple SD card but it had a hissing sound so ymmv.

Mp3s of music can be ripped from cds and maybe even music and audiobooks downloaded from public domain sites like the Internet Archive. You might even be able to get cheeky and download something audio heavy (and public domain! wink) from YouTube. Winrar can help you with any conversions.

There are also narrators built in to some operating systems and screen readers if that wasn’t good enough.

I’m sorry, I’m not trying to be toxically positive or dismiss anybody’s emotions. This is terrifying to go through and I can’t imagine the sudden loss of independence she feels.

I just thought to offer some options that might help with boredom/depression and allow her to choose activities for herself/control the device

Edit: Can you get screenreaders on phones to read texts? Maybe she can get a jitterbug (simplified phone for elderly) and maybe there can be buttons where one or two numbers can be programmed in. Or Siri can be set up to allow her to call people.

It really helps mentally when you know you’re able to do something without assistance. It’s a comfort knowing any time of the day or night you can choose to listen to something or call someone whether a support person is there or not.