Cell Phone for Older Folks, or for Handicapped Folks

I just read a post by a gentleman named Mike who made a compelling case for the development of a digital camera that would fill the needs of older folks. (First Digital For Us Older Folks? None of you ''get it '' Posted by: mbjeep130 - 07/24/2006 9:36 PM)

I'd like to make a case for the development of a cell phone that would fill the needs of older folks and some handicapped folks too.

My mom is getting older, she's 92. (I'm 63, but I consider myself young.) My mom lives clear across the country from me. She lives alone, does her own shopping, drives herself to her various appointments and activities. Yes, she still has a drivers license and she has never had an accident. It would be to her advantage, though, to have a cell phone with her, just in case something unexpected happens, as she goes about her routine.

Oh, I got her a phone. She's a family member on my Cingular account. I have tried several times to show her how to use it. But it intimidates her. The buttons are too small for her no longer nimble fingers. She worries that she will somehow make a mistake that will cost me a lot of money, or minutes, or something.

She needs a phone that makes calls the old fashioned way, by dialing the number, on a keypad big enough to see and manipulate easily, so that she can have confidence that she can make the call, get it right, and not accidentally activate some little understood but very expensive technology.

She grew up with a phone that made calls - period. She doesn't need a camera (actually she has and uses a Sony digital camera). She doesn't IM. She won't use it to send email, she has a computer for that. She won't want the latest ring tones. She just needs a simple, reliable, easy to recharge, easy to make calls on, difficult to make mistakes on, cell phone that she can carry with her when she leaves her house.

I have tried to find her one several times, without luck. The young people at my Cingular store are sympathetic, wish they could help me, but they don't know of any phone that is designed to fit the needs of an older or a handicapped person.

So, CNET Reviewers, and anyone else out there who has some influence on design or review of new products, here's a market waiting for a product. Or, if someone is already making a simple phone for older folks, and I have just been unable to find it, point me at it. They have a customer. Oh, and if I need to change carriers to get it, I'll do that too.

Thank you,
Diana

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