Senior Cell Phone Modification…

Mom’s new cell phone modified to prevent inadvertent actuation of the volume and voice command buttons.

Cell phones are not senior friendly. Button placement is awkward, labels difficult to read, and nonsensical. It would only take a little field testing and the application of very basic human factor principles to design a senior friendly phone. But I don’t expect this to happen.

My 91 year old mom who never owned a cell phone, now needs one. To meet her need Sandy and I picked out the best offering by Verizon. We chose Verizon because we have an existing account. Its not like they have any senior friendly phones. Like all cell phone companies, they are a bunch of blood sucking leaches with only one purpose in life… suck every penny out of each and every customer while providing as little service as possible. I rant…

The biggest problem with cell phones for seniors is the volume control. It is strategically located so that when picked up one can easily turn the volume off. It would really be nice if the volume setting could be locked in software or the switch itself had a lock. Since neither feature is available, I super glued the switches so they can no longer function. Before applying the glue I made sure the volume was set to max. We didn’t do this for Sandy’s mom and she frequently turns the volume off and not hearing the caller hangs up.