Health and lifestyle journalist Bonnie Estridge has been a reporter all of her adult life, and that hasn’t stopped since she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. In a recent article she wrote for London’s Daily Mail, she lamented that tasks like remembering passwords have gone from difficult to impossible since the disease began taking hold.
Although some devices are now proving very difficult to use, including some of her techno-favorites like the digital recorder she used to record interviews, Estridge has found that there are people designing gadgets with folks like her in mind.
One such device is the Unforgettable Music Player and Digital Radio. “It’s really cool, a sort of 1960s retro style, with a grey tweed face and red curvy plastic body,” she wrote. “It has a few big, colorful buttons to turn it on and to switch between radio and music that’s been stored on it; and buttons that say ‘louder’ and ‘quieter’ to control the volume.”
Estridge admits that she didn’t know how to store music on the device, but her elder daughter loaded a playlist on it for her.
“I find it easy to use, and have been playing Mirror Man by The Human League on repeat. I absolutely love it!” Estridge wrote.
Another device she received was a watch that has a GPS tracking device, which her husband could use to locate her if she wanders off.
Even her dog has become Alzheimer’s-savvy, coming to greet her with his leash at the same time every day so she doesn’t forget to take him for a walk—or worse yet, be unable to walk him at all because she forgot where his leash is.
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