Skip to content

Technology

Assistive technology refers to devices or systems that help maintain or improve a person’s ability to do things in everyday life. These can assist with a range of difficulties, including problems with memory and mobility.

Automated prompts and reminders

There are different devices available for setting reminders, and you can tailor many of these to your needs. Some of them can include a voice recording of you or your family or friend. Types of prompts and reminders include:

  • Devices that detect motion – these use a sensor or pressure mat and play a pre-recorded voice when there is movement. For example, you could set one of these to play a message when a person walks out of the kitchen to remind them to turn off the gas.
  • Devices that play set reminders – these play messages at certain times. For example, one could be used to record a message reminding a person to take medication. Smart phones also have calendar and reminder apps.
  • Accessing devices remotely – with many devices, including tablets, PCs and smart phones you can give people you trust the ability to access it remotely. This means you can support someone from a distance by for example adding reminders on their behalf.

Clocks and calendars

There are lots of products that can help a person keep track of the day and date to aid orientation. Automatic calendar clocks show the date and day of the week as well as the time. Some clocks also show whether it is morning or evening, which can be very useful when it’s light in the evening or dark in the morning.

Talking clocks are also available, and there are clock and calendar apps that you can download to your smartphone or tablet. These can be set up to meet your specific needs – for instance by choosing whether the alarm will be a noise, a flashing light or a vibration, and customising the layout of the calendar and clock.

Medication aids

There are lots of different aids that can help you to take your medication at the right time. These include:

Simple pill boxes – these have separate compartments for days of the week and times of day, to make it clear when to take medication.

Automatic pill dispensers – these are pre-filled and locked. When it’s time to take medication, the dispenser sets off an alarm and the right compartment opens so the correct pills are dispensed. Some devices can be set so the alarm goes off until the pills are removed. Some devices can also alert others if the medication hasn’t been taken or if there’s a problem with the device, for example, the battery being low).

 

Locator devices

A locator device can be used to help you find things you often misplace, such as keys or a wallet. A small electronic tag is attached to each item. Locator devices can work in different ways. In one system, if an item gets lost, pressing a button on a dedicated locator device will activate the tag with either a beeping noise, a flashing light, or a combination of both. Locator devices can get lost so it’s usually best to keep them somewhere safe in the home, for example mounted on the wall or fixed to a shelf (as long as the battery compartment can be accessed). Another option is to attach a small tile to each item and link them to a smartphone using an app. The location of the item can then be shown on the phone’s map app. Some apps will store the last place where the phone ‘saw’ the tile.

Hearing and vision aids

There are a range of devices that can help with sight and hearing difficulties. For help with sight problems, there are different kinds of magnifiers that can be used for reading, ranging from handheld magnifiers to electronic magnifying video screens. There are a number of other devices such as Braille remote controls which may also help. There is also a wide range of technology available for people with hearing difficulties. This includes hearing aids, amplified phones (with louder ringtones or speech volumes), and doorbells that connect to a vibrating pager.

Virtual assistants

Smart devices and virtual assistants (such as Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant) allow you to give voice commands or ask questions, which they then carry out or answer. This can range from asking what the weather is like, to creating an entire ‘smart home’ system which plays music, controls the lights and adjusts the central heating (although additional equipment would be needed for these).

These devices work using ‘artificial intelligence’ which means that over time they become more useful as they ‘learn’ to recognise a particular voice. They can be useful for lots of different purposes and you can add new functions as they are released – For example, you can programme a virtual assistant device to remind you about appointments or when to take medication. You can also use it to make phone calls.

Robotic technology

There is a growing range of robotic technology available, including small robotic pets and automatic vacuum cleaners. There are also more advanced devices such as ‘smart robots’ that can, for example, bring you an umbrella before you leave the house when it’s raining. Like virtual assistants, many of these devices use artificial intelligence so that over time they should become more useful. As some of these devices can be quite complicated and very expensive, they won’t be suitable for everyone.