Accessibility in an iPod?

November 15, 2006 8:11 AM

An MP3 player for my grandfather: is there something with large buttons and an easy to read screen?

My grandfather (89) has been spending time in hospitals and doctors offices, and I want to get him set up with some audiobooks. The problem is that his vision is quite poor (he uses a magnifying glass most of the time) and I doubt he can handle the standard ipod wheel.

Fortunately, he is not completely averse to technology--he likes his mac. I want to load something up with audiobooks, teach him how to navigate and send him off.

What's got easy to use, large buttons and an easy-to-read screen? Physically, bigger is better. A large flash or small hard drive should suffice.

posted by allan to shopping (12 comments total)

i have to say that the ipod is more usable than many of the other mp3 players i've seen. at least it only has the one button..thought my dad would have a rough time with it but he loves it.
posted by BigBrownBear at 8:17 AM on November 15, 2006

Would this or something similar help? Easier than trying to get an mp3 player with suitably chunky font size perhaps.
posted by edd at 8:28 AM on November 15, 2006

If he's familiar with Macs, maybe an old iBook with iTunes would fit the bill? You can magnify the whole user interface using Quartz Debug. Perhaps the touchpad would be awkward, though.
posted by beniamino at 8:29 AM on November 15, 2006

Seconding the used laptop idea...
posted by tremolo1970 at 8:35 AM on November 15, 2006

You may want to take a look at the "Milestone 311" mp3 player and voice recorder. It doesn't have a screen, but it has large, easily accessible buttons. It was developed in cooperation with the Swiss National Association for the Blind. I read here that the mp3 player is capable of playing DRM content such as Audible, Apple FairPlay and Microsoft Plays for Sure. Audible has a lot of good audiobooks.
posted by speedoavenger at 8:39 AM on November 15, 2006

The Rockbox replacement OS includes voice prompts for the blind. Rockbox runs on a variety of MP3 players, including most iPods.
posted by orthogonality at 8:43 AM on November 15, 2006

Oh, and Rockbox supports a variety of fonts, some quite large, and customizable screens.
posted by orthogonality at 8:43 AM on November 15, 2006

The podcast on the page speeoavenger linked makes it clear that the Milestone 311 does not play DRM-ed Audible (or other DRM files). The review overall is pretty negative.

The (long-winded) podcast ends up recommending something called a Book Port for blind audiobook users -- which I guess is this. That could be a solution for this problem, too.
posted by beniamino at 9:39 AM on November 15, 2006

Also, iPod shuffles have no screen and a very simple non-touchwheel UI. I believe they can play in non-shuffle mode.
posted by beniamino at 9:41 AM on November 15, 2006

Thanks for the feedback. I really want something portable, so that he can use it in waiting rooms, etc, so a laptop may not be the best. Ipod shuffle isn't a bad idea, but minimal navigation between books and chapters would be nice. Is there much else on the market? The creative zen looked like it might be easier to use, for example...
posted by allan at 10:34 AM on November 15, 2006

If his eyesight's failing, I'd suggest not bothering with a screen. As long as the player doesn't have a million buttons he should be okay. I have one of the Creative flash players. The display's pretty tiny, so I just scroll through the files with the thumb wheel until I find what I want to listen to. The nice thing about these is that they're small enough to stuff in your pocket and (relatively) cheap enough so you're no worried about dropping or losing it, compared with one of the hard disk models.

If your gramps will primarily use this for audiobooks, you want to make sure the unit will re-start where it left off if powered down.
posted by SteveInMaine at 1:40 PM on November 15, 2006

This may not be as cool as a new mp3 player, but why not just consider a Discman and a bunch of burned CDs?

No messing about with tiny buttons or scrollwheels - just put the CD in press play. Easier, cheaper and just as effective.
posted by afx237vi at 1:44 PM on November 15, 2006