Amplified Phones

 PANASONIC Amplified Cordless Phone with Digital Answering Machine – KX-TGM450S – 1 Handset (Silver)

Amplified Phones Make Those Words “Can You Hear Me Now” Obsolete

Amplified phones would have saved me a lot of time when chatting with my parents. Trying to talk to my elderly father who had hearing loss (but wouldn’t admit it) meant I said a lot of ‘Can you hear me now’?’

An amplified phone would have meant that Dad could have turned up the volume and, sure enough, he would have heard me now. In fact, some amplified phones go up to 18 decibels – that’s pretty loud.

Amplified phones come in two basic flavors: corded or cordless.

For the elderly, I think that corded phones are the way to go most of the time. With a cordless phone, there is always the chance (and a big one at that) that the cordless handset will be set down somewhere, never to be seen again. At least with a cord, they’ll know where their phone is.

You might want to check out my sister article ‘Photo Phones’ also. Photo phones allow one to program a button with a number and then to add a picture of the person. All your elderly loved one needs to do is push the picture!

Amplified Phones – Corded Version

With Mom’s arthritic fingers, the large buttons on these amplified phones made dialing much easier for her. She was a fan of corded headsets as was I.

 Clarity Alto Plus Severe Hearing Loss Amplified Corded Phone with Circuit City Microfiber Cleaning Cloth HePesTer P-02 Amplified Large Button Corded Phone for Senior Clarity P-300 Amplified Corded Photo Telephone

Amplified Phones – Cordless

These cordless phones might be a bit of a challenge for the elderly so tread lightly when considering this as a present. These all do amplify speech nicely though.

 Clarity XLC3.4 Amplified Cordless Phone (59234) Clarity BT914 Severe Hearing Loss Cordless Amplified Phone With Circuit City Microfiber Cleaning Cloth Clarity D704 40db Amplified/Low Vision Cordless Phone with CID Display

Closed Captioned Phones

Perhaps your elderly loved one’s hearing is going but their sight is fine. That’s why a closed captioned phone might be a good choice.

The closed captioning only works in the US. You need to register your loved one when the phone is first set up and then captioning is free (there is an operator who types the conversation).

 Hamilton CapTel 2400i – Large Touch Screen Captioning Telephone with 40dB Amplification – Includes Free Liberty Health Supply Microfiber Screen Cloth! Hamilton CapTel 840i Real-Time Closed Captioned Telephone Clarity XLC8-GLT Captioning Telephone System – 50dB Amplified Cordless Phone with Captioning Tablet – Free, Automated Captions