Updates & Upgrades

Sheila_Flanagan · July 12, 2024, 11:49pm

Thank you, Bill. I have her on my phone plan since I am on the Verizon senior plan with unlimited data, talk & text and since I found out how to make all of her buttons big, she is doing better with using the smart phone.

I tried to get her to use a bigger tablet so she could see, but she does not get the “touch” thing. At first, she kept pressing so hard I thought she’d break the glass. I told her it was not about pressure, but the heat from her finger, so she only needed a light touch. But once I got her reading on it, she would swipe and go 50 pages forward and then could not figure out how to get back to where she was. She gave up.

She is able to call me, even when she doesn’t mean to…lol. And I gave her a stylus to help with texting as she can’t seem to remember to use the microphone and speak her words. Nor can she remember to turn her phone around in landscape mode and get a bigger keypad. So she was getting frustrated with typos.

I did find some settings in the Floorp browser (fork of Firefox so I am sure other browsers might have them) where you can set the width of the tabs and center the label and even keep the label on pinned tabs. I was surprised at seeing those. If I pin the tab, it be default only shows the icon and she does not recognize them. But now I found how to make the tabs and labels stand out–that will help tremendously.

I read the article by @abhishek on the few Linux distros for vision disabilities and have downloaded them to test out and see how they run, etc. But I also found an article on setting up Linux Mint for the visually impaired. So I intend to test that out with her this weekend.

All of you are so helpful and I am so grateful. I will keep you updated as I continue the journey to find what will work best for all of this.

Thanks,
Sheila

callpaul.eu · July 13, 2024, 4:21am

Yes if we can help please just ask, think its a project that we all can have ideas on but lack a real guinea-pig (no offence) we can all suggest but experience is better.

Almost any distro would work, change screen resolution to creat bigger buttons, remove clutter and software not needed. But then the issue could be site visits as they tend to be designed for normal screens so may fall off the page right or left being too big to show.

If touch screens are not suitable that begs the question on mouse movement and click ?

I notice my wife uses more voice control for google and search. But not to launch apps which may help others in a similar position.

Big button phones are popular but limited market for sales.

berninghausen · July 13, 2024, 1:17pm

Sheila, I’m no expert in computers for seniors (although I’m a senior with computers!), but it sounds like some of your mom’s difficulties involve cognitive slips. Maybe the Grandpad (https://www.grandpad.net/) is compatible with your Verizon plan. I’d sure try it if my spouse or I had the difficulties you describe.

I’m impressed with this review: GrandPad Tablet Review: Video Calls, Music, and More for Older Folks | WIRED

Bill

callpaul.eu · July 13, 2024, 2:52pm

Its short of a wordprocessing and spreadsheet apps

But if it gets on the web could be used on google docs or similar

Does it use a seperate mail box address or your own

Expensive…but possibly on the right lines

Sheila_Flanagan · July 14, 2024, 12:27am

Hi, Paul,

I am still researching the Ordissimo, but what a great concept for older folks who have never used a computer. It takes absolutely all of the guesswork out of what keys to hit and where to point the mouse and click.

Now my mom has used a computer for many years, but Windows 7. When I told her she had to go to 10, she found it difficult, of course. They made such drastic changes to 10.

She had used 10 for over a couple of years when I switched her to Linux Mint. It took some getting used to, but she was getting pretty good at sending text messages on the KDE SMS app so she did not have to use her phone to type long messages. She was a typist for many years before retiring, so she mostly had issues with where to point the mouse and find things. In fact, I was surprised she knew absolutely no keyboard shortcuts, like copy/paste.

So after spending some time getting the browser thing right, I was surprised to find that not only in Floorp could you increase the size of each tab and the font used for the tab label, you can get into a new tab, “about:config” and actually change the CSS for the app by selecting “devp” and edit it. Default was set to -1.0 and I switched it to +1.50. Wow! The entire thing got really huge.

This is my normal Floorp display:

And this is my mom’s after making all those changes above:

I even tried it at 2.5 and when it go so big it could not show everything in her protonmail, I noticed it created icons as shortcuts for things like “new message” it had the pen in the circle icon like on smart phones. Then to send a message, it displayed the arrow like in text messages meaning “send.” Add Attachment switched to a paperclip, and so on. I remember setting up my own business website with enhancements for mobile users–Proton must have set that up as well.

Obviously the whole icon thing would not work for her, as previously mentioned. But my point is there was actually a way to do more than just get big fonts.

And after watching a video on the Ordissimo, I thought of further modifications based on those.

What if in stead of having to use the small panel at the bottom, we had an app shortcut on the desktop to Firefox or Floorp, and we renamed the shortcut to Internet and used a custom icon like two computers talking? What if instead of the protonmail icon, we created a shortcut to it and called it Email and used an evelope icon? And the list could go on.

If I can control everything inside of an app being large enough, then unlike what she is currently having trouble with “Which of those small icons on the panel do I click to get where I want to go?” could be remedied by either only having desktop shortcuts and not using the panel, or I enlarge the panel and everything on it, including labels beside icons, and change those labels to the same simple terms, I might be able to get her closer to where she needs to be.

The other struggle she has is not understanding file trees or directories. For the longest I have had to make her downloaded crossword puzzles all go to the desktop so she could see the file to print it out. She had no idea how to go find a folder called Downloads.

So I could also create those same folder shortcuts for her pictures, her documents, right on the desktop.

I am still going to test out the other Linux distros this weekend, but already I have found so much of what she needs in customizations.

I will report back once I have a chance to see what else those other distros have to offer.

Thank you so much!

Sheila

callpaul.eu · July 14, 2024, 12:19pm

I am sure like others on this site we will all be interested in your progress.

Hopefully we will be able to continue using technology to help us. When i read about medical health issues that effect older or handicapped It causes me concern.

I had thought originally changing the screen resolution would help but not suspect a deeper solution is needed.

If you do develop one adapted i am sure others will follow. Strange ordissimo is the only one offering or my research is not correct