Phones For Senior Citizens

How to find a suitable cell phone for seniors?

The mobile phone technology is going toward touchscreen devices and we see the large button phones disappearing from the store shelfs. However, against much of the touchscreen advantages, they might not be the appropriate choice for elderly people and seniors.

So what is the right phone for senior citizens?

Thorugh our research and running surverys at senior centres, most of the elderly people like to see  the following items for their best mobile phone pick:

1. Big Buttons : this is an obvious one, but the most necessery feature seniors need in order to use their phones easily.
2. Simple & Clear Interface : Most new devices come with many features to help for organization, emails, pictures and many more to call. But having any of these might not be necessary and also confusing for seniors from time to time. They would like to use their phones when they want to make a call as simple as that. Having additional keys and number of icons on the screen could become annoying to seniors as they will have to learn what those are for while not having any need for them.
3. Loud Speaker : This is another obvious feature that is needed for many senior phones. Hearing loss is a known problem of human that can happen to the best of us when aging. Testing many regular phones, you can notice the difference in the speaker quality and their maximum loudness. Therefore choosing a phone for elders, checking the speakers loudness is necessary.
4. Large Fonts & Digits : Similar to above, having the large, clear fonts is likely to be needed for most seniors which could help them to make a call without using their glasses.
5. Easy To Use : Seniors care about being able to make calls more than anything from their telephones. So why give them so much additional features and confuse them.
6. Right Size : Having an incredibly small phone would be an asset to many of us. Yet seniors are less likely to enjoy that since they may have to always look around to find their phone. We want something not too small and not too large and heavy to allow them keeping their mobile phone next to them or in their pocket.

What other additional features could be useful?

• Emergency Calls : Having a easy button to press and call 911 would be the only necessary additional item that could become useful to seniors in case of emergency.
• Flash Light : Although we said having many features could be confusing, but if they are implemented to be user friendly and accessible might be great advantages for some specific cases. Having a flash light handy in your pocket would be a nice asset as well.
• FM Radio : Not too sure about this one. But we know most seniors enjoy listening to radio and it might be convincing to them to learn how to use their phone as a FM radio device.

Where to Purchase Senior Phones?

There are number of items we could find on the products page that cover all items above. Feel free to take a look and see if they could be the right fit for you or your senior parents.