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So I need help on two fronts, one of which is local but I’ll take suggestions of places to look… I have a client in her 80s who has macular degeneration and has suffered a stroke, leaving her unable to walk without assistance. Other than attending an aphasia center, she is home every day. She was very educated and worked as a chemist in NYC.
I’d love to be able to give her some podcasts to listen to on world events, music, etc. I know where to find them but I don’t know how to get her to be able to listen to them. She does not have internet and with her eyesight trouble… It would have to be a very basic device that she could control by touch. And I’d prefer if it was something I could transfer files onto with a laptop as I can’t take it with me unless she has two – I see her every three weeks so I can’t return it with new podcasts and the lack of internet prevents her from setting them up to auto-update. (I don’t trust her aides to be able to help her with this).
Second, what other places/ideas are there for someone like her, who enjoys culture and science and speaks German but is on a limited income and is unable to get out? She already has someone from the library bring her audiobooks. Her blindness and partial paralysis (she can only use one arm, her non-dominant one) in addition to her needing assistance when walking) make her options extremely limited.
Even if it’s not in NJ I’ll take suggestions as maybe I can find an equivalent here. Anything from someone who comes and reads to her to a service that would bring her to local events.Thank you!
Hi Jennifer,
Does your client have internet access? If so, you can get her Google Home or Alexa and she can use voice commands to get a host of podcasts.
The low end price for these items are approximately $50.
I hope this is helpful. Feel free to reach out to me if you have other related questions.She does not, Peter. I saw a suggestion for Alexa when I was googling ideas as well. I wish, but her speech issues from her stroke may prevent anything voice activated from being too helpful either.
Have you tried the Society for the Blind? I have a client who is almost completely blind & she has received services & assistance thru the Society. I don’t know exactly what since the daughter handles that part.
Good luck!! She’s lucky to have you.
Jeralyn FleigAnother option would be to download the podcasts that you know of and burn them onto audio CDs. Then the senior could listen to them using an easily available portable CD player. Software to create audio CDs from MP3 or other digital file types is pretty common. (It’s been a while since I’ve done this, but the media player software in Windows may even have this capability.) With a spindle of 100 CDs being fairly inexpensive when on sale, the media cost isn’t very high.
Thomas, that was what I was leaning towards doing. I wasn’t sure if a regular CD player would play it but I don’t see why not (I believe I recollect that as long as you make it final and not ‘re-writeable’ it’s fine. I have a Mac but I’ll investigate further. I’m sure there’s a way to do it from itunes even. Thank you.
From iTunes you should be able to import a file (the one(s) you want to put on CD), then put them into a playlist and then burn the playlist onto a CD. On my (older) version of iTunes, right-click on the playlist shows an option to “Burn Playlist to Disc”.
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