Macular Degeneration and Kindle

[nphx]

My 92 y/o mom loves to read and her vision is fading. With new glasses she does 15 minute sessions of reading. For a non tech oriented person like my mom- can someone with kindle experience advise on the learning curve if I can train her to turn on and navigate through book pages and if there's a way to set large font to be sticky?

 

[cathy63]

Get her a Kindle cover that has a magnet inside (which pretty much all of them do nowadays). Then "turning on" the Kindle just means opening the cover. Once it wakes up, the screen says "Swipe to unlock Kindle". So you'd just have to teach her what "swipe" means. Once she unlocks, the Kindle will open her previous book at the place where she left off.

Turning a page is just a tap at the right edge of the screen to go forwards or at the left edge to go back.

Font size is sticky for book text. You can enlarge or shrink text with the two finger pinch or zoom gesture, or you can use the "Aa" menu which you reach by tapping the top edge of the screen. Font size settings don't apply to the device menus or book lists, so if the text in the book list is too small for her it may be hard for her to switch to a new book. There is a built in Screen Reader that provides some audio help with navigation for the visually impaired, but I have not tried it.

Getting books onto the Kindle and choosing a new book to read may be difficult if she's not comfortable with tech. It depends on whether she'd be buying books from Amazon or borrowing from the library via Overdrive or if you'd be the one setting up her e-book library. The Sort/Recent setting on the book list would help her find books that were newly added or those that she'd just been reading.

 

[nphx]

Thanks. Placed an order. I visit 1 to 3 x a week in assisted living so I hope it can take root.

 

[braumeister]

She should be fine. Kindle can be quite addictive -- I always have at least 5 or 6 books going at once on mine. I assume you got the Paperwhite version. If not, you really should -- it's far superior to the regular version.

The other nice thing about it is that it always remembers your place in every book, so just tapping the title takes you exactly to where you stopped reading last time.

 

[Kerfuffle]

I would recommend the Oasis because it has a larger screen size. Otherwise, on the smaller ones, she'll only get a few words per page with large text. I'm assuming you purchased an epaper one and not a tablet though. Epaper is a lot easier on the eyes.

 

[nphx]

I did buy the paperwhite, and a magnetic cover. Thank you all!

 

[donheff]

My older brother had retinitis pigmentosa which results in progressive tunnel vision. It eventually left him unable to read normal text. I set him up with a Nook tablet that worked well for reading but required trouble shooting from time to time. I often did the IT consults by phone but it was difficult. If the device needed a tweak, he could understand my instructions but could see well enough to follow them. His wife had cognitive impairment - she could see the device but often couldn't explain what she was seeing or couldn't properly follow the directions. If you can find someone nearby who can help when needed it may make the difference between success and failure. It is certainly worth the effort to keep someone reading.

After a while with the Nook, I switched my brother to an audio device designed for visually impaired. It was provided free by a state of Maryland program that I think exists in other states as well. They sent the device and three book cassettes with mailers. When he returned a cassette they would mail out another book. You could let them choose or setup a list online. I handled the online portion and managed his book list. It worked well and the device was easy to use.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Font size is sticky for book text. You can enlarge or shrink text with the two finger pinch or zoom gesture, or you can use the "Aa" menu which you reach by tapping the top edge of the screen. Font size settings don't apply to the device menus or book lists, so if the text in the book list is too small for her it may be hard for her to switch to a new book. There is a built in Screen Reader that provides some audio help with navigation for the visually impaired, but I have not tried it.

Getting books onto the Kindle and choosing a new book to read may be difficult if she's not comfortable with tech. It depends on whether she'd be buying books from Amazon or borrowing from the library via Overdrive or if you'd be the one setting up her e-book library. The Sort/Recent setting on the book list would help her find books that were newly added or those that she'd just been reading.

IMO this is going to be the real issue; the interface itself has no accessibility accommodations. If this turns out to be a big issue, one fix might be for you to manage the books for her on your computer, so she doesn't have to be able to read the covers. The last book you were reading is always in the first slot, so that helps. She could then go back to the home screen and open the next blob, knowing it's the next book you've put on her reading list for her.

The only hitch with this plan is that borrowed books (if you, say, use the library, as I do) generate a "letter" every time you return them that gets put on your home page, and you have to delete it. Not sure how you could deal with that for her, if it's an issue. The appearance is pretty different, though, so even with low vision she might be able to tell the difference between most if not all books and these annoying letters.

 

[kevink]

The only Kindle I'd consider in that situation is the Oasis, which costs. $269 for the ad-free version). For another $30 you could buy the latest iPad, with a larger screen, more than twice the pixel density and tons of other useful features and download the Kindle and Audible apps. For your mom's short reading sessions it's a no-brainer purchase but my wife, who's an immersive reader if ever their was one, finds the Kindle app on her iPad so much easier to read given the screen size and font adjustability that she's stopped using her Kindle.

Bear in mind too that the Kindle is awesome for reading magazines or any kind of book with graphic content, while even the best Kindle ereader is useless for such tasks.

If the Oasis were priced like the basic Kindle it would be worth considering, but at its actual price you're just funding Bezos' trips into space.

 

[gettingthere]

My mother, in her 90's, had a pronounced tremor in her hands. This made operating a touch screen reader difficult, since a touch usually ended up as multiple taps, and multiple screen advances.

We found that an Echo (Alexa) speaker worked well with audible books, and she could use it to communicate with me as well.

 

[Likes_to_Lurk]

My older brother had retinitis pigmentosa which results in progressive tunnel vision. It eventually left him unable to read normal text. I set him up with a Nook tablet that worked well for reading but required trouble shooting from time to time. I often did the IT consults by phone but it was difficult. If the device needed a tweak, he could understand my instructions but could see well enough to follow them. His wife had cognitive impairment - she could see the device but often couldn't explain what she was seeing or couldn't properly follow the directions. If you can find someone nearby who can help when needed it may make the difference between success and failure. It is certainly worth the effort to keep someone reading.

After a while with the Nook, I switched my brother to an audio device designed for visually impaired. It was provided free by a state of Maryland program that I think exists in other states as well. They sent the device and three book cassettes with mailers. When he returned a cassette they would mail out another book. You could let them choose or setup a list online. I handled the online portion and managed his book list. It worked well and the device was easy to use.

My DM had macular degeneration and was in a nursing home in Pa. The activities director was able to set her up with a tape player and cassettes that were mailed back and forth. There was no charge. She did very well with this, as the player was set up for the vision impaired. I think this was a program run by the Library of Congress, so should be available nationally.

 

[EastWest Gal]

Was this the program?

https://www.loc.gov/nls/

 

[Likes_to_Lurk]

Was this the program?

https://www.loc.gov/nls/

Yes, that looks like it! Thanks for finding and posting the link.

 

[nphx]

Well, my experiment didn't work out. My mom could read the enlarged fonts but I couldn't lock down or adjust everything. She would inadvertently touch hold and swipe selecting some text. or double tap not noticing two pages went by. In settings, I did turn off dictionaries but other settings didn't let me go deeper to address this useability issue. So the book manuscript about her brother will be printed on paper for her. I am an engineer and software developer - so as a pet project I may make a raspberry pi device with large mechanical switches (no touch screen) for next page and previous and a toggle switch for On and Off. Thanks all for the input!

 

[cathy63]

Sorry it didn't work out. Hopefully you can still return the Kindle to Amazon.

 

[qwerty3656]

Thanks. Placed an order. I visit 1 to 3 x a week in assisted living so I hope it can take root.

Not to hijack the thread, but we have a family friend in an assisted living center and she keeps loosing her phone (and then her sister/healthcare guardian buys her a new one).

She's gone through enough of them, that it seems likely that someone is taking them - I'm wondering if this is a big problem; or an isolated incident for these types of facilities?

 

[braumeister]

Not to hijack the thread, but we have a family friend in an assisted living center and she keeps loosing her phone (and then her sister/healthcare guardian buys her a new one).

She's gone through enough of them, that it seems likely that someone is taking them - I'm wondering if this is a big problem; or an isolated incident for these types of facilities?

Assuming it's not something like an iPhone that can be tracked by itself, this sounds like an ideal use for one of those little trackers like an Apple AirTag or a Tile. Attach it to her phone and then you can track it down with the app on a smartphone. If someone is taking them, you'll know.

 

[Golden sunsets]

Well, my experiment didn't work out. My mom could read the enlarged fonts but I couldn't lock down or adjust everything. She would inadvertently touch hold and swipe selecting some text. or double tap not noticing two pages went by. In settings, I did turn off dictionaries but other settings didn't let me go deeper to address this useability issue. So the book manuscript about her brother will be printed on paper for her. I am an engineer and software developer - so as a pet project I may make a raspberry pi device with large mechanical switches (no touch screen) for next page and previous and a toggle switch for On and Off. Thanks all for the input!

If she's in Assisted Living, I would think staff at the facility could provide the tech support she needs to be able to get the appropriate font size.