Parkinson’s Disease: How to set up IPhone for easier use due to tremors.

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Level 1

8 points

Parkinson’s Disease: How to set up IPhone for easier use due to tremors.

Hi,

My mom has had Parkinson’s disease for awhile and with her advancing age and increase in tremors she is having a hard time using her IPhone. When I go into settings and accessibility I see a number of choices that may help make her tremors not as much of an issue when answering a phone call. I’m wondering if anyone has experience setting up an IPhone for easier use and if so what settings specifically did you change? Under accessibility there are a number of changes that can be made but many of them have no explanation of what toggling on or off will accomplish. I’m also wondering if anyone has watched a video explanation of the accessibility settings and what each of them do?

Thanks for your help!

Posted on Jun 19, 2023 8:41 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 21, 2024 2:30 PM in response to DocCEM

I found a guide from Shirly Ryan Abilitylab and the Parkinson's Foundation for best iPhone settings for Parkinson's

https://www.sralab.org/sites/default/files/downloads/2021-01/iphone%20adaptation_education_3.pdf

And another from the UK here:

https://abilitynet.org.uk/news-blogs/how-changing-settings-your-ipad-and-iphone-can-help-people-tremors

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Answer 2

Jun 19, 2023 9:01 AM in response to DocCEM

This may help you --> Get started with accessibility features on iPhone - Apple Support (IN)

Do read Physical and motor section.

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Answer 3

ygalatas

Level 1

8 points

Dec 25, 2023 10:00 AM in response to DocCEM

I face the same issue with my mother in law.

The two main issues we are facing are:

Long press when enabled creates a mess
Scrolling is very hard

For the first issue, Apple please make an option to disable long press

For the second I believe it can be solved by the right combination of settings in Touch Accommodations but I have not managed to pin them down nor did I find any more specific guidance on the values and settings combination. Can anyone help with this?

I also find that auto replying calls and automatically putting on speaker phone helps a lot (Accessibility > Touch > Call Auto Routing)

I also believe that the definite mode for advanced Parkinsons condition is Assistive Access mode - it’s pretty much foolproof. Unfortunately the calls auto reply feature does not work with this. Can you please Apple make it work?

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