How to help Android users with reduced ability to see

Question

What can we do in Android phone to help users whose ability to see is reduced?

To be clear they are not blind persons, they are just 55+ years old and with age they have reduced ability to see.

When my father has seen Xperia with 4.0 inch display he thought that his troubles with using the phone were over. Trouble came again when he realized that font size is still small because of large resolution.

Most of them are just simple users and they have needs only for seeing time, date, contacts, missed calls, incoming caller id, and dialer. They're not even using SMS.

What can I do to increase size of these functions on display, and make it simplified to access as it can be?

Is there any app or theme or something similar already made for helping "older" people using phone?

Answer 1

You could try using LCD Density Changer to decrease the density (effectively increase the size of everything on-screen). This will probably result in the bottom and right side of screens being cut off, however.

There are also (limited) accessibility options in Settings -> Accessibility. I think it might be limited to a screen reader.

If the problem is really just things on-screen being too small, may I suggest eyeglasses?

Answer 2

You can make text larger by going to the Settings app and clicking on Display and then Font size. Unfortunately, not all developers test their apps with different font size settings, so you may find some apps look bad or have their buttons in the wrong place. If you find an app like this you should always complain to the developer.

Newer Android devices have more options for vision-impaired users, found in Accessibility in the Settings app (find it in the System section, near the bottom of the list). There you can find an additional Large text setting, as well as an option to read out on-screen text and describe GUI elements, as Matthew describes. You can also change how long a long-tap is: your father might find this useful if he has arthritis and sometimes long-taps by accident.