The phone that gave me my evenings back

I am sixty-eight, and I lost most of my sight to glaucoma over the course of about ten years. For a long while I got by with my old mobile, the one with real buttons, until it finally gave up and every replacement in the shop was a flat sheet of glass. The young man at the counter meant well, but he kept telling me I would get used to the touchscreen. I did not get used to it. I would ring my daughter by accident and sit there in a panic, not knowing which part of the screen to press.

A friend from my choir told me about the BlindShell Classic 3, and I ordered it half expecting to send it straight back. I did not send it back. It has proper physical buttons that click under my fingers, and it reads everything aloud in a calm voice, from the name of whoever is ringing to the messages my grandchildren send. There is a button on the back that I press when I cannot find it in the house, and it helps me set reminders for my tablets.

What I did not expect was the quiet it gave me. My evenings used to end in frustration, prodding at a screen that would not co-operate. Now I ring my sister, I listen to my audiobooks, and I go to bed calm. It is a telephone, I know, but to me it feels like a small piece of my independence handed back.