[Electronics-Talk] Accessible Phones?

[Amanda Lee]

I have purchased two different flip phones from Consumer Cellular and both have Speech output but you will need to have the Target store person enable the Accessibility features.  Both of these phones run on Android.  I had my Mom's sent to her and so she doesn't require speech output so we didn't enable it.  When I next visit though, I probably will play around with it some to see how it accesses functions.  Both phones have larger buttons and they have a very pronounced ringtone whereas the tiny LG380 phones we had on AT&T which will be discontinued I think it is early next year, only spoke caller ID and even though my hearing is fine, I sometimes would miss hearing my phone and that was one complaint Mom had as well as she prefers a larger screen and more accessible buttons.  We also could not enable speakerphone with those.

There are actually more accessible flip style phones than one would think.  I am sure Verizon has some model.  Just contact their Accessibility Center and AT&T will likely have a new model and I would think T-Mobile does as well.  I could not find one through Xfinity Mobile where I have my iPhone but since I will be more than likely cutting the cord with Comcast, I'll probably be moving my iPhone as well.



-----Original Message-----
From: Electronics-Talk <electronics-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Gerald Levy via Electronics-Talk
Sent: Thursday, September 9, 2021 8:34 AM
To: Donald Moore via Electronics-Talk <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Gerald Levy <bwaylimited at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Electronics-Talk] Accessible Phones?


Are you talking about land line phones or cell phones?  If you are talking about cell phones, Lively Mobile, formerly Great Call,  offers the Lively Flip phone for $99 that has large, tactile buttons and is designed to be senior friendly.  It also has built-in Alexa, but it is not clear whether it also has speech for the menu options.  The owners guide claims that it can "read out loud what is on the screen", but when I I inquired about this on the Best Buy web site, a company rep claimed that it does not have speech output to read the menus, so I don't know what to believe.  The Lively Flip can be purchased at Best Buy stores, and they will activate it and set it up for you.  Another flip phone option is the Link 2, which is made for Consumer Cellular and is available at Target stores for $35, but does not have any built-in speech capability.  But it also has large, tactile buttons and like the Lively Flip, is designed to be "senior friendly", and would be a good option if all you want to do is make and receive phone calls. Like Best Buy, Target will activate and set up the Link 2 for you.


Gerald



On 9/9/2021 7:55 AM, Donald Moore via Electronics-Talk wrote:
> I know this topic has come up here before, but a friend of mine has an 
> old push button phone that their carrier won't support any more.  What 
> is the newest one of these phones, and who sells it?
>
> Thanks in advance.  I know this topic was a long thread on the list, 
> so if you want to write privately, my email is:
>
> don.moore48 at reagan.com
>
> Thanks so much!
>
>
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