5 minUpdated 2026-08-07
1. Is the phone used for anything beyond calling?
If texting, banking, the camera or the web are used regularly, keep the ordinary phone and simplify it instead. Clear apps off the home screen, enlarge the text and add photos to the contacts.
If the phone is in practice only used to make and answer calls, the rest of the interface is just in the way. A locked screen is then a reasonable step.
2. Do names still work, or only faces?
Recognising a face is a different task for the brain than reading and interpreting a name. Many people who struggle to find words still recognise a grandchild instantly in a photo.
If the contact list has stopped working but photos still say something, the solution should be built on pictures — large, bright and cropped to the face.
3. Are there mistaken taps?
If the phone often ends up in settings, in an app nobody meant to open, or in a state nobody can get out of, the ability to navigate is itself the problem. A locked mode removes that ability entirely.
4. Does it need to work outside the home?
A picture landline is the simplest of all, but it stays where it stands. If the phone is needed on a walk, in a waiting room or at a respite unit, it has to be a mobile.
5. Who is there to look after it?
Every solution needs someone to enter numbers and photos and to step in when something changes. If there is no such person, choose whatever needs the least upkeep — not whatever has the most features.
6. What happens if it does not work out?
Always ask what it costs to try and what it costs to change your mind. A solution that requires a subscription or new hardware is more expensive to test than one that uses a phone already in the house.
Common questions
- Is there an age at which this becomes relevant?
- No. It is about what works, not about age. The questions above matter just as much for someone in their forties after a stroke as for someone in their nineties.
- What if the person does not want to change?
- Start from what they want to be able to do — call the grandchildren — rather than from what no longer works. Let them choose who appears on the screen. Keep the old phone in a drawer for a while; the decision feels less final that way.
- Can an occupational therapist help assess this?
- Yes. A functional assessment by an occupational therapist usually gives a clearer answer than a checklist, particularly when several things interact — sight, hearing, hands and memory.