My mom has some hearing damage in one ear. She doesn’t wear a hearing aid but she does go “Wha?” whenever you ask her something and then you have to scream what you just said, embarrassing everyone at the AA meeting. When Powertel, a subsidiary of a German company, Amplicom that has made devices for the impaired for years, offered to send over a Powertel 500 DECT cordless phone I thought it would be nice for her to try.
It was.
The phone is a standard DECT phone with caller-ID and other features but it has a huge keypad and large, bright screen for the aged. The best part, however, is that it amplifies the phone calls up to 50db and is TIA 1083 compliant, which means you can use it with a hearing aid. It has 11 hours talk time and 100 hours standby. The best part is the ringer: you can set multiple ring styles and two bright LED lights shine like the sun when the phone rings, ensuring that everyone knows what’s up.
The phone is a bit pricey at $139 but it’s available online for a bit less if you look. While I wouldn’t recommend this phone as a general house phone, if you live with or are dealing with an aged parent with hearing issues, this is a godsend. My mom, incidentally, loves it, and wants more of them which is more rousing a recommendation than I could ever offer.