Quote:
Originally Posted by rwillmer
David, I've just had to go through the same process for my father-in-law, who has advanced Parkinsons, bed-bound, poor eyesight, very limited movement capabilities.
The parameters I was concerned about were:
a) He can turn the pages himself;
b) He can get a font size he can read;
c) the battery life is measured in weeks not days;
d) there's a good enough book selection for him;
e) Light enough he can hold it.
I went for the Kobo Touch. I'd have been interested in the Kindle Touch but it's not available yet in the UK.
None of the tablets had a long enough battery life; the Kobo Vox would be interesting but the 7-hour battery life is a no-go.
so the Kobo Touch looked like the best option because he wouldn't be able to operate a button on anything; so the touchscreen looked the only viable option.
Tay's trying it out for the first time this weekend; I'll post how he gets on with it.
Rachel
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Thanks for the reply Rachel,
It's great to hear from someone undertaking a similar exercise, and to see what criteria you're focussing on. I'd be most interested to hear how he gets on with the Kobo Touch. I didn't realise the Vox had such a low battery life actually.
Well I haven't chosen one yet, but am in the middle of writing up my findings from here/elsewhere to print off and post to the carer, on her request. Then we'll decide what to do next. I think I'll be pushing to get a Kindle Keyboard from Amazon just to assess what she can/can't do on it. Then, as someone mentioned earlier in this thread, I should be able to return it pretty easily if it doesn't work out.
I was thinking the same thing about touchscreen being the best option for such a user, but I've been surprised how many people think it's not better for arthritic users, due to it being fiddly hitting the right area of the screen, easy to trigger things unintentionally when moving the device, and the lack of tactile feedback. There's been a couple of touchscreen advocates though, so I'll be very interested to see what you think of it after he's given it a try.
Do you mind me asking if your father-in-law has WiFi access, or is someone on hand to do the downloading of books on his behalf?
I emailed Apple asking if they could put me in touch with someone with whom I could discuss the possibility of using Dragon voice recognition software(that someone pointed me to on here) on an Ipad. Alas I got fobbed off *again* with an auto-reply. I think the mere mention of "disabled" or "accessibility" sends cold shivers down their spines.
Anyway, it's good of you to take the time to share your findings with me - thank you. If possible, then I'll be interested to hear how you get on with it all.
Thanks,
David.