So my boomer mom, who has a very limited concept of technology, tells me she has a friend in a rehab clinic where she is in bed 24 hours a day, basically in a closet. She can’t really move her hands and she’s been intubated most of the time so she can’t reliably talk. So she’s just laying there doing absolutely nothing for the entire day like Johnny Get your Gun but with eyes and ears which probably makes it worse.
So my mom’s friend has the intubation tube removed and my mother visits and my mom is fucking horrified by this situation. She asks if her friend would like some music or something, anything, and of course she would, but because she can’t use her hand or reliably speak the most obvious options won’t work, to say nothing of the fact that I have no idea how to even set that kinda thing up on a device (I use my windows PC for everything, I don’t use any streaming services or download audiobooks or whatever and I hate Alexa).
So the question is what is a system that barely responsive person can use to interface with music or audiobooks? Something simple enough that they can direct a nurse or something to push a button every couple hours. A standalone MP3 player with a screen? A tablet loaded with files? I just don’t know.
I’m certain my mother is imagining herself in a similar situation someday, and it’s freaking her out, and honestly it sounds pretty miserable to me also
A word of caution: do whatever you can to ascertain the actual tastes of the person for whom you are setting up this media access, because you could easily make things worse. You are setting up media for them to consume for hours on end that they will not easily be able to change or to stop. Done wrong, it is the stuff of nightmares.
I don’t want to discourage you in any way. I just want to make it clear that your FIRST task, should you choose to do this, is start with asking around that person’s friends and family about what music and media they actually enjoy, and then get them that, specifically, avoiding anything that differs from it too widely because they will not be able to change the channel or turn it off. What you love may sound like screeching gears to them, so don’t add that. Stick with what you can verify that they like.
A good place to start is their own media collection. If they’re my age, which is to say old, they may have physical media you can flip through, like CDs and books, as well as what is lying around the house, like magazines. What was on their nightstand when they went into the hospital? What was in the player when they last listened to it? When you talk to their adult children, what movies do they remember their mom loved? What song would light her up when she happened to hear it? What era of music does she love best? Was she a radio listener before she became disabled (likes variety, can stand anything that gets played) or an album/playlist listener (like curated content, and perhaps one artist or style of music in a sitting).
If you can’t find any of this out specifically, go for soothing, slow and quiet, but not melancholy, played at LOW VOLUME. Like Bach cantatas on lute, for example, or ambient guitar, not least because neurological conditions can make what used to be pleasant listening actually painful. This vanilla pudding of music may not be your taste, you might even find it repulsive, but it’s a pleasant enough change from silence, and anodyne enough at any volume that it won’t make her worse off if there’s something going on in her brain you don’t know about yet because she has not been able to communicate.
So be careful. Because again, you are about to subject this person to hours of sound on end with no reliable way to switch it off.
You’re doing a wonderful thing. But you’ve got your work cut out for you first. If you get stuck, find out her age for me and I’ll put you together a short, safe list to start with.
if I’m in a condition like that where I have no choice and then someone starts playing my favorite music all day I’d be in absolute hell I’d be in hell I would hate it oh my God just let me sit here in silence please holy crap I have to shit
A radio would be my first thought. Either a simple one with speakers or a pocket radio with headphones, depending on what her situation allows. Doesn’t really need any interaction other than turning on/off.
Agreed, and set it to NPR. If you make it a clock radio, you could set it to turn itself on for a couple of hours every morning to help her re-establish some sense of time, which is very difficult in hospital-type situations. And then a nurse can push the on/off button if she wants more. Tape the tuning dial so it doesn’t get turned to a right-wing talk station.
As an old mom myself, I’d even suggest your mom bring her own old clock radio she’s probably got, because she knows how to set it up already. Then you get her a new one she can puzzle out when there’s no pressure.
(Edited to add a couple of things)
In the same vein, a TV might work too as long as it’s able to receive digital programming. They make small ones you could probably make work.
I don’t know how tech (il)literate people are anymore but a basic laptop with portable drives containing media. Portable drives with single folders containing movies, audioooks, music. Compile a few playlist files. Make sure a reasonable player like VLC is the default.
Seems kind of hard to mess up if you can get the nurses to play a list of media once in a while. It’s a simple as a few clicks.
If she can push one button, Android Accessibility can work:
https://hackaday.io/project/13449-bosi-the-bluetooth-open-source-switch-interface
https://support.google.com/accessibility/android/answer/6301490
A touchwheel of the original ipad might be doable? load it up with ebooks, podcasts, long mixes, radio recordings, you would only need to get the headset put on your head and pick something every 5-10 hours… A regular tablet loaded up with this stuff and using VLC media player to just auto-play everything in the folder might be a bit more practical to achieve, and seems the way some boomers around me like it. maybe go wired instead of bluetooth because charging requires extra handwork?
I know eye-tracking mice exist, but not much more than that. I’ve seen it used with a onscreen keyboard as well making it pretty useful.
Prob super imperfect but with an iPhone:
Control iPhone with the movement of your eyes - Apple Support
Possibly more mature:
Use Voice Control on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
Adding to that, macOS has Head Pointer built-in accessibility function since 10.15. However, she would need be able to move her head.
It allows to use different face expressions for different mouse commands, I have tried it and it’s more than enough for anything where a mouse is required.
If she has reception, get her a radio player and program in a bunch of local stations. Talk radio, several stations with different music genres she likes, something with interesting shows like NPR might be nice.
The benefits are that any nurse can operate a radio. It never pauses playback to see if the person responds. It doesn’t require an internet connection or expensive electronics, only a plug and reception.
If she’s not already using her phone, there might be a reason. For example, she may not be allowed electronics, or there might be a lot of petty theft in the facility.
Back when my dad was hospitalized, we bought a portable dvd player with a screen and burned some movies he liked.
Doubles as a CD player!
Does your mom’s friend have family? I’d start there, followed by asking the hospital what resources they have for patient engagement that your mom could supplement.
Absent those, I would look to a local library app like Hoopla or Libby. Once installed and setup with an account, it should be relatively easy for a non-technical person to use.
Failing that, audiobook and music CDs from a local library, playing on a CD stereo. Your mom brings fresh CDs and returns the old as she visits.
I really hope the hospital has some resources though, maybe a patient advocate could offer advice specific to the hospital. If this is “rehab”, they should be taking care of the mind as well as the body.
What you’re looking for is assistive technology. One of these options might work, depending on how much mobility she has: https://www.ucdenver.edu/center-for-innovative-design-and-engineering/community-engagement/colorado-assistive-technology-act-program/technology-and-transition-to-employment/alternative-mice
This one also looks interesting: https://dextrowaredevices.com/mouseware/ but I’m not sure how available it is outside of India. Theoretically it’s plug-and-play for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS, which would be very convenient. She might be able to just pick YouTube videos for herself.
Assistive technology can be expensive but there are often government subsidies available for it, and maybe health insurance coverage.
This piqued my interested so I did some looking around and found a Bluetooth controller at www.rjcooper.com though it’s kind of expensive
I had to get back to work but I found some similar products elsewhere when I searched for “oversized Bluetooth remote” and the like. Might be a good start?
With modern tech, my best idea would be a bluetooth speaker with a remote control with physical buttons. If someone connects this to smartphone or tablet, she can start/stop, loud/quiet, forward/backward skip from the remote. This should work with any music or audiobook player, if she has occasional assistant to navigate the actual app.
But I have to agree with others. A radio is probably better. It’s an all-in-one device made for the purpose, no frills.
It sounds like you need something like Stephen Hawking used to generate speech. It is neither simple or cheap. You might be able to rig up some image processing algorithms to read eye movements or something like that to serve as control inputs to a similar system. I would guess anything resembling this would be very bespoke.
Off hand, I would say an iPad or tablet, maybe with the accessibility settings to max. Load books all you can, a few movies. If you did a large format eink tablet, movies are out, but audio and books are still in play, even apps for soduku or crosswords.
