Carolyn, I'm going to tell you about 3 possibilities of phones that would be just what your friend needs and is looking for. I'm also going to tell about the phones that I know that are available for some other carriers that I know of. Before I tell you about the phones, I just wanted to point out something that we all pretty much know, and that is sometimes the sales people don't know details and can't answer questions about when the speech is on the phone and in some cases they don't even know if it has speech that you can turn on. Though there's some sales people that are a bit more knowledgible, but since they don't use the phones with the speech on there's questions they don't know how to answer and part of that is because they don't use the speech. Now about the phones, if your friend wants to stay with verizon, there's 3 phones currently that are accessible with the text to speech, including the caller id, and the phones are

1. the kyozera cadence flip phone,

2. the kyozera duraforce a bit more rugged flip phone

and 3. the lg exaltflip phone. For some details about the keypads on these phones. The kyozera cadence keypad you can tell the difference between the buttons. In fact on the 5 key there's a dot in the middle of the key, and on the end key there's a dot  on the right side  of the key. The lg exalt keypad keys are easy to tell apart as well, and with the 5 key having a dot on the left site of the key and another dot on the right side of the key and the end key having 2 dots as well, just like the 5 key with 1 dot on the left side of the key and a dot on the right side of the key. Unfortunately I don't have the kyozera duraforce so I can't tell you about the dots on the 5 and end keys on that phone, though it's most likely like the cadence phone. We're planning to go to the verizon store to look at it. All 3 of these phones have the text to speech including the caller id. If your friend is looking to get a prepaid phone with verizon, presently walmart is selling the kyozera phone for $29. We've had the experience before, how chain stores  in one area may not have some of the same products as others, so hopefully your friend's walmart sells the cadence phone as a prepaid phone. I don't know if you could buy a cadence postpaid  phone at walmart which I don't think that they do. If she's interested in verizon postpaid her verizon store would most likely have all 3 phones to look at and purchase, the kyozera cadence, the kyozera duraforce and the lg exalt. Now for some accessibility details, besides the text to speech, in the accessibility area on the cadence phone, I found the setting for fant size, so one can adjust the print size, and in the acessibility area of the exalt it's called larger text that you would go into adjust the print. In the accessibility area on both phones, it has the tty mode, and the hearing aid mode as well. If your friend is into texting or typing in her own contacts, if she used the voice on the phone in  the options the different modes to capitalize letters, getting to the symbals and numbers is easily done on both these phones, which isn't the case on other models of flip phones. If she's with verizon, here's 4 bit older flip phones that have text to speech  with full read out including the caller id are, the samsung gusto 3, the samsung convoy 4 and the kyozera dura xv. The gusto 3 and the convoy 4 are 3g phones so due to 5 g coming out, the 3 g network will only be in use for another year. It's getting harder to find these phones since depending on these phones, some came out about 3 years ago and some came out 4 years ago, as far as these last 3 phones I'm telling you about. I'm not sure right now if the dura xv is 3 g or 4 g, but I haven't found it in any of the stores lately, but it too has full read out and the caller id. You would most likely be able to find these phones on amazon, and has for the gusto 3, laz sells the gusto 3 for for about $59. If your friend was on t-mobile another bit older phone is the candy bar phone the samsung t-199 which has total read out with the text to speech and the caller id.  The buttons are those rubberized feeling buttons that I find confortable to dial on and you can dell the difference between the keys. The other 2 current phones that I know about that have the text to speech, that I haven't seen yet are the kyozera duramax for sprint and the kyozera dura x e  for at&t, both these phones are the rugged sturdy phones, that I believe are the same as the duraforce for verizon. Soon enough I'll get around to the different stores to check out these 3 phones, the duraforce, the dura x e and the duramax and I'll be able to answer more questions and be able to tell more about these phones. Though from what I understand from both a sales guy at sprint and the sales guy I know at verizon, they do have the full read out text to speech. If anyone knows more about these phones it would be interesting to hear about them.

 

If your friend wants to use consumer cellular There's 2 flip phones, the doro from what I found out only talks the numbers, as far as what I understand so far that it doesn't have full read out for the options and menues to speak. A customer service person from consumer cellular had the doro phone to look at, and she was going through the menues, and as I said the only thing she could see that she could do was turning on the speech to hear the numbers. The voice for the doro was a pleasant male voice. She didn't know for sure if the caller id worked as far as the voice announcing the phone number that was calling. We couldn't test it since neither one of us could call the phone, nor could she call out on that phone.  The other phone is the acatel go flip phone that does have the text to speech. While it talks all the menues and options, when it comes to writing a text message the modes for the symbals such as period, comma and so on and the number mode isn't accessible to get too. You could hold down the pound key to capatilize a letter but the other modes that most likely show up from the pound key don't talk. That would also go for the email area, which does talk, but it's getting to those symbals and numbers when you need them. Unfortunately the talking id doesn't work in this phone, the acatel go flip. Both at&t and T-mobile have available the acatel flip 2, and I don't think the talking id works in those phones either. I had a prepaid acatel flip 2 for a prepaid phone, and I don't remember it having the caller id. I still have the phone but it's not connected now, but I don't think it did. If anyone has questions about any of these phones, I would be happy to answer what I do know, either on the list or off list. My email address is

arlenes71154@...

 

Arlene

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Gene

To: main@TechTalk.groups.io

Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2018 6:45 AM

Subject: Re: [TechTalk] Kapsys SmartVision 2 cell phone

Not from what I recall from what I've read.

 

Gene

----- Original Message -----

From: Brian K. Lingard

Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2018 6:01 AM

To: main@TechTalk.groups.io

Subject: Re: [TechTalk] Kapsys SmartVision 2 cell phone

Dear Gene & List:

Do Jitterbug cell phones offer Speech output?

Brian K. Lingard

 

From: main@TechTalk.groups.io <main@TechTalk.groups.io> On Behalf of Gene
Sent: December 11, 2018 6:32
To: main@TechTalk.groups.io
Subject: Re: [TechTalk] Kapsys SmartVision 2 cell phone

 

Does it have talking caller ID?  I doubt it.

 

Gene

From: Gerald Levy

Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2018 5:29 AM

To: main@TechTalk.groups.io

Subject: Re: [TechTalk] Kapsys SmartVision 2 cell phone

 

Tell your friend to visit a nearby Best Buy store and check out the
Jitterbug phone.  Jitterbug is now owned by Best Buy, and their in-store
Geek Squad technicians can help your friend get started.

Gerald

On 12/10/2018 8:46 PM, Carolyn Arnold wrote:
> I have an elderly, partially-sighted friend. Her flip phone died, but she needs a replacement. She went to three Wal-Marts and could not find a flip phone that would announce a caller. I suggested that she go to a Verizon store, and she thought she might call Maxi-Aids and Independent Living. She just wants a phone to use as a phone strictly, doesn't even want texting. They told her at Wal-Mart that their only suggestion was an iPhone - like yeah, I'll bet they'd like to have five or six hundred dollars for that phone that would literally overwhelm my poor friend, who lives 1,200 miles from me.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Carolyn
>
> From:main@TechTalk.groups.io  [mailto:main@TechTalk.groups.io] On Behalf of Victor
> Sent: Monday, December 10, z2018 7:08 PM
> To:main@techtalk.groups.io
> Subject: Re: [TechTalk] Kapsys SmartVision 2 cell phon> It’s good to know that there are android phones that have physical keyboards. It’s good to know that these phones are main stream. I don’t think there’s any need to go with a phone made for the visually impaired if you can get one from a mainstream company. Chances are, you’ll be better off in the long run. Give yourself a chance to learn how to use a phone with a touchscreen. That may be the only choice any of us will have an a few years. I don’t know how long phones with physical keyboard will be around.
>
> Victor
>> On Dec 10, 2018, at 2:41 PM, Carolyn Arnold<4carolyna@...>  wrote:
>>> The ones Olusegun mentioned are more up to date too.
>>
>> Once I finally got used to a touch screen, I would not want a phone
>> with buttons. They seem clumsy now and like they don't react as
>> quickly as the touch pad and text fields on a touch screen. We all
>> have different wants and needs.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Carolyn
>>
>>
>> From:main@TechTalk.groups.io
>> [mailto:main@TechTalk.groups.io] On Behalf Of Olusegun -- Victory
>> Associates LTD, Inc.
>> Sent: Monday, December 10, 2018 2:40 PM
>> To:main@TechTalk.groups.io
>> Subject: Re: [TechTalk] Kapsys SmartVision 2 cell phone
>>
>> Fanus, whether or not the asking price for Capsys phone is worth its
>> price depends on how much you're willing to pay for it.  If you're
>> happy with a touchscreen device in the mainstream market, keep running
>> with it.  However, if using a smartphone is important to you and you
>> need one that comes with a tactile keypad, then Samsung Folder2 and
>> Blackberry's KeyOne, both in the mainstream market, may be worth
>> looking at.  They are certainly far more cheaper than the Capsys phone
>> and getting tech support if necessary could be a tad easier since
>> these devices are in the mainstream.
>>
>> I've never played ball with any of these devices 'cause I prefer
>> touchscreen devices and have a few of them that I throw against the
>> wall for fun time and time again, yikes, silly me!  I will only settle
>> for the likes of Capsys if I can't seem to find anything in the
>> mainstream market that does what I am trying to accomplish with ease
>> even if there's a slight learning curve.
>> Good luck on the decision-making process and all the very best!
>>
>> Sincerely,
>> Olusegun
>> Denver, Colorado