Safe Cell Phone for severe patient

[Allele2]

Has anyone who is severe found a cell phone that they can tolerate? Member Samuel needs a phone but he has severe photophobia, sensitivity to flicker, and general neuro intolerance to the devices he has interacted with.
Has anyone else here with photosensitivity due to very severe ME found a device that is okay for them? Or solutions for managing the screen flicker and dimming issues?
He mostly needs it for emergency communication and interacting with his doctors and helpers.


Samuel may end up being without helpers round the clock (he is totally bedbound) so this is urgent. I am encouraging him also to get a medical guardian device, but he needs to be able to communicate with the outside world as well. All suggestions most welcome.

 

[Allele2]

eek, sorry for the typo, can't fix it now

 

[Trish]

eek, sorry for the typo, can't fix it now

If you mean in the title, I've fixed it.

 

[Kitty]

Obviously it won't give him internet access, but a vintage landline phone has no lights at all.

I probably haven't enough insight to make any other suggestions—at least, not anything that he won't already have thought of.

 

[Allele2]

If you mean in the title, I've fixed it.

You're a doll, thank you

 

[Subtropical Island]

Has anyone who is severe found a cell phone that they can tolerate? Member Samuel needs a phone but he has severe photophobia, sensitivity to flicker, and general neuro intolerance to the devices he has interacted with.
Has anyone else here with electrosensitivity due to very severe ME found a device that is okay for them? Or solutions for managing the screen flicker and dimming issues?
He mostly needs it for emergency communication and interacting with his doctors and helpers.


Samuel may end up being without helpers round the clock (he is totally bedbound) so this is urgent. I am encouraging him also to get a medical guardian device, but he needs to be able to communicate with the outside world as well. All suggestions most welcome.

There are more people seeking out old school phones so i’d expect that they might be better for simple screens but it all depends on what sort of interaction works best for him? Text? Call?

NB sometimes the answer is to try email - less immediacy can be a good thing and the range of devices is even greater.

I’m told that a kindle has an easier screen in that it’s designed to be read with ambient light (rather than back lit). But i don’t have one to know its functionality.

 

[Gecko]

I have found the Twilight app on Android to be hugely helpful for managing dimming. This is not available on iPhones.

Twilight allows you to make the screen extremely dim, and take's out most of the blue light, which has allowed me to use it even in a darkened room when I have been more severely unwell. Something to consider or try maybe.

 

[Subtropical Island]

The iphone equivalent is Night Shift ( in settings under display)

 

[Kitty]

I've just remembered about John's Phone, which came out quite some years ago. I don't know whether they were ever sold in the US, or whether you could get a secondhand one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John's_Phone

It does have a speed dial function, I think, so it wouldn't be necessary to type the number in every time.

 

[Gecko]

The iphone equivalent is Night Shift ( in settings under display)

Unfortunately it's much less powerful, and can't dim phone screens nearly as much as Twilight can on Android, but still worth using if you have an iPhone.

 

[Utsikt]

Stumbled upon this thread when looking for something else.

I’ve heard about phones that use e-ink that might fit the bill here. I’ve never tested them myself, though.

 

[MrMagoo]

A very basic suggestion - privacy screen for a smartphone. It sticks on, you can only see what’s on screen if you look directly at it, it slightly dulls the light, sideways on it just looks black.

I used to have some issues with flicker on computers and they were resolved completely by a privacy screen.

They are very cheap, here is an example on Amazon