Here’s a great story about technology making a real difference in one person’s quality of life…
My mom just turned 100 in June of this year. She says she has the mind of a 50 year old and the body of a 100 year old and in truth she certainly doesn’t look 100. But she is 100 (and has the Happy Birthday letter from the President to prove it) and, as a result, she has some physical limitations. Among them, she has macular degeneration. According to her eye specialist she won’t go blind but her vision has gotten so bad that reading has become a problem. This is a horrible thing for someone with the “mind of a 50 year old” and, quite frankly, it was depressing to her. You see, she spends most of her time at home, without many visitors, and reading makes up a large part of her day.
- Mom at 99 3/4 at her granddaughter’s wedding this past January
During my last visit I showed her my iPad (I won on www.geardiary.com and love- thank you Judie!), specifically the Kindle App. She tried reading on it. The backlight really helped but while the largest font offered by the app worked it was still a bit too small and it still strained her eyes. Sensing I was on to something I decided that she should try the Kindle DX since I read that Amazon had added 2 larger font sizes on the newest model. (If that didn’t work better mom was getting… an iPad!)
Thanks to the Kindle’s large fonts the magnifier is just for light now.
We ordered it and it arrived while I was still visiting. (I love Amazon!) I was nervous. I really wanted it to work. So much was riding on it since if it did work it would really improve the quality of mom’s life! And… it did.
From the first moment my mom could read on the Kindle without straining her eyes. Once again she could enjoy reading.
So does she like the Kindle? Nope… she loves it.
And it would never have even occurred to me to try it if I had not shown her the Kindle app on the iPad I won right here.
Ethel (aka Diggs)