If you need reading glasses to use your phone

Meredith

Meredith

riding reluctantly into the sunset
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What do you do on a solo ride?
I hardly ever ride alone. It's either hacking with others or a lesson. The only time I am alone is on fun rides. Theses have stewards erratically placed round the route. You are given a teeny piece of paper with an emergency number on it. Not only can I not read the number I can't see on my phone to use it. If I carry my reading glasses I need to take my hat off to change from distance ones and they're another thing to break / land on if I come off.
Any helpful suggestions?
 
Off the top of my head, try a phone designed for elderly folk? My dad had one. Super slim and light, no keypad just five large tactile buttons - four contact numbers and 999.
 
Could you copy the emergency fun ride number onto something other than the teeny bit of paper, and do it with a big thick felt pen so you can read it without glasses?
Eg write it on your arm, or somewhere else you can find it easily
My everyday phone is an ancient Nokia and I can't read texts without glasses but dialling is fine
 
Breather said:
Off the top of my head, try a phone designed for elderly folk? My dad had one. Super slim and light, no keypad just five large tactile buttons - four contact numbers and 999.
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Just hang on, do a bit of homework and make certain this is at least 4G compatible!
because this type of invaluable-for-elderly-or-compromised-phone is likely to become obsolete any minute now. Those I’ve seen to replace them seem a lot more complicated, so quite how vulnerable oldies are going to manage is a worry, altho you might be ok.
 
I have reading glasses but not totally blind. It's just for ringing someone I could probably manage without by squinting and recognising icons 🤷🏻‍♀️
 
Have you tried making your phone font big enough that you can read it without reading glasses? (appreciate that depends on your perscription strength!) All else fails write it in thick black pen on your arm and then get your phone to call it by saying it out loud
 
Thank you everyone.

Answering questions and suggestions

Contacts... no, tried, can't wear them.
Varifocals.. I wear bifocals.I can't ride wearing them as when I look down I get a normal horse neck, when I look forward I get, obviously, a different magnification. I tried, it makes me dizzy.
Squinting.. eyes must be too bad, sadly.
Siri.. what is this?
Putting in contacts...as before. I can't see which icon is which
Writing on arm or larger paper... I still can't see the phone to operate it.
Enlarging the font.. will investigate. I didn't know this was possible.
 
Siri is the voice activated assistant on iPhones, Android have a similar one- you might need to activate it on your phone and play about a bit to get used to it, but it allows you to call some one by pressing a physical key on the phone and saying "Siri, call Fun Ride" or "OK Google, call Fun Ride".
 
I have enlarged the font so I can just read it wearing my distance glasses. I've added a contact
'AA AFUN RIDE'. I will add the new number when I check in wearing my bifocals. Then if necessary find Contacts and the number will be first.

Mr M investigated speaking to a phone. My phone is not recent enough apparently.

Thank you HHO. I knew I'd find an answer here.
 
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I would go to take a photo of it and then zoom in (without taking photo) until I can see it, I need to do this sometimes if I have forgotten my glasses.
 
Meredith said:
What do you do on a solo ride?
I hardly ever ride alone. It's either hacking with others or a lesson. The only time I am alone is on fun rides. Theses have stewards erratically placed round the route. You are given a teeny piece of paper with an emergency number on it. Not only can I not read the number I can't see on my phone to use it. If I carry my reading glasses I need to take my hat off to change from distance ones and they're another thing to break / land on if I come off.
Any helpful suggestions?
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I would put the number into my phone at the start of the ride under An Emergency so it would be the first in the list of all your phone contacts .. get the steward to read out the number or even ask them to put it in for you . Alternatively you could pop your reading glasses in a pocket on a gilet .. I ride in sunglasses nearly all the time now but if it goes really overcast I sometimes take them off and put them in the pocket of my reflective waistcoat .. they don’t seem to get damaged ..
 
I used to use glasses for cyclists that wrap around your head. I had mine with a reading prescription. The prescription bit fits inside the sunglasses and are much cheaper to change, should you need to, than a full prescription pair of specs. Like you, I couldn't do varifocals for riding. They made me feel seasick. I couldn't do lenses either as I had really dry eyes. The glasses themselves were expensive (from Specsavers) but the prescription bit was not. I don't know if they still do them but they were a game changer for me.
 
Fire sign said:
I would put the number into my phone at the start of the ride under An Emergency so it would be the first in the list of all your phone contacts .. get the steward to read out the number or even ask them to put it in for you . Alternatively you could pop your reading glasses in a pocket on a gilet .. I ride in sunglasses nearly all the time now but if it goes really overcast I sometimes take them off and put them in the pocket of my reflective waistcoat .. they don’t seem to get damaged ..
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Thankyou. I think my plan, above, is very similar.
Esmae said:
I used to use glasses for cyclists that wrap around your head. I had mine with a reading prescription. The prescription bit fits inside the sunglasses and are much cheaper to change, should you need to, than a full prescription pair of specs. Like you, I couldn't do varifocals for riding. They made me feel seasick. I couldn't do lenses either as I had really dry eyes. The glasses themselves were expensive (from Specsavers) but the prescription bit was not. I don't know if they still do them but they were a game changer for me.
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If I understood correctly I think I'd still have to change glasses. Sorry if I've misunderstood.
There are also wrap round glasses that are called Cocoons. I have some for night driving. They don't do prescription lens.
 
Meredith said:
Thankyou. I think my plan, above, is very similar.

If I understood correctly I think I'd still have to change glasses. Sorry if I've misunderstood.
There are also wrap round glasses that are called Cocoons. I have some for night driving. They don't do prescription lens.
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I bought these specifically for riding. So that I could read a map. I left my varifocals in the car. The cyclist ones were sunglasses but the the prescription bit clipped into them inside the sunglasses. Hope that makes sense.
 
Meredith said:
I wear bifocals. They don't work for riding.
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I dont know about that. I used to ride in mine. Then I started to ride with no specs, but with reading glasses in my pocket. Recently I have ridden in varifocals. The same I wear all the time. I used to keep an old pair for riding but they went a bit yellow and I dont want to spoil my view. Apparently that happens if one chooses plastic lenses, which I did for riding.
 
If you have previously struggled with varifocals, try a pair of tailor-made varifocal lenses. Very easy to adapt to. Get used to wearing them day to day and then try wearing them when you are riding. If you buy them from Specsavers you can return them within 100 days if you are not happy with them.
 
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