My 4 year old grandson is facile and very adept with his Dad’s iPad. His generation knows nothing of clunky desk top machines that weighed 60 lbs. out of the box. He knows only of a slick one pound device with brilliant color, great sound and video right at hand that can transport him to wonderful entertainment, challenging games and great educational opportunities for 10 hours without a plug.
I was a late adopter of anything Apple and only came into the fold earlier this year. One reason I bought my iPad was to be able to read many magazines on line and the weekend newspapers when on my boat and away from a newsstand or home delivery options. Another was the amazing array of tide and weather information available through NOAA websites and those of others who take the NOAA data and massage it in meaningfully useful ways to form independent and very useful weather predictions. There is no longer an excuse to be out in a bad storm when you can tune into radar displays that show storm cells as they form and head in your direction. That means plenty of time to get your sails down and head for a safe port in a bad storm. All you need is the telecom carriers to support your device while you are out on the briny. Unfortunately, that isn’t always a given in the Northeast.
I was quite surprised at the advantages Apple and its tablet competitors offer to senior citizens with diminishing senses. That includes people with reduced mobility. It is also user friendly for those whose hands, wrists, and fingers, twisted with arthritis, no longer want to cooperate to open doorknobs or to secure or open buttons or shoe laces. For sure, Apple’s fine designs have made Motorola, Dell, and Hewlett Packard retreat from their early efforts in this product category. Amazon and Barnes & Noble have had more success with their book readers, Nook and Kindle which cost a fraction of the price of an iPad even if they can’t do all the same tricks.
The Three Things Apple Got Right:
1. As eyesight fades and it becomes harder and harder to see the printed page, what a wonderful facility tablets offer to their users to simply expand the type to a size that is easy for you to read. There is no embarrassment to have to ask for a large type newspaper or book. You can simply push your fingers apart and make the type whatever size works for you.
2. If the senior is comfortable with the internet, it is still possible for them to easily read email from siblings, children and grandchildren who want to keep in touch with them. Even if they cannot type themselves, they can at least receive and enjoy communications from their friends and loved ones.
3. Friends and family can load in large photo albums of old photos or new ones that can be easily viewed by the senior. I recently met a woman who had just been to Florida to visit her 89 year old father, now in a nursing home. His hands are gnarled with arthritis and he surely cannot type but he could easily swipe his hands across the pictures he was viewing to move along to the next one. He was thrilled to be able to control the device by himself on this simple level and asked if he could have one of his own.
by Joan Lappin
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