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
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 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.
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.
Honestly I think this is exactly what I was looking for, thank you very much!
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?
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!
There are remote controls for Android/Ipads that should make controlling apps pretty easy, but I’d expect occasional help from care takers would be required. Here’s one that can be strapped to the bed side-rail and should be usable for someone even with limited mobility.
My first thought is a Raspberry Pi with a DAC hat. Then you can wire up some buttons and put it in a case. You could then program the buttons to do the basic functions like play music, skip, volume, etc. You could also use that same concept for an Arduino board and use it to control a computer or pad. My Mom had a muscle disease and it got to the point where she couldn’t hit ctrl-alt-del to turn her computer off at night. She also couldn’t hold down the shift key and type at the same time. I built her an arduino board with a box that I mounted a flip switch that would hold down shift for her as long as it was flipped, and then another button that when she hit it would type the ctrl-alt-del combo so she could do that all one handed. Both the rpi and arduino have pins that you can attach switches to and use them as a keyboard or mouse.
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.
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.
Cellphone is prob the best bet
Free music app - stingray music - loads of genres and all years of music
How would the bed ridden person use it since there is very limited usage of the hands?
Hey (Ai assistant) next song??
Can’t reliably speak, is what the original post said.
If she can push one button, Android Accessibility can work:
https://support.google.com/accessibility/android/answer/6301490
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.
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.
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.
