Alto II, a simple feature phone ideal for elderly users with sensory and/or cognitive disabilities

Monday, 29 September, 2014

Por Amóvil

El teléfono Alto II en naranja, negro y azul

The Alto II is a basic feature phone developed to accommodate the needs of elderly people or with little technological knowledge who may also have visual, hearing and/or cognitive disabilities. This is a slide type device that includes the classic numeric keypad and can only be used to make and receive phone calls and text messages.

The phone measures 102 x 25.8 x 22 mm and weighs 120 grams. It comes with a 2.2-inch screen with 176x220 pixels resolution. However, content is displayed with sufficient size and contrast to be read comfortably without magnification.

This device does not support Internet, Bluetooth or GPS, and lacks a photo camera.

Accessibility review

Vision

The Alto II is accessible to blind people. It comes with a text to speech feature pre-installed that does not need to be activated. It starts working the moment the user turns the phone on for the first time. Another feature that may improve the experience of these users is that the send and the end button include text in Braille.

This phone may also be quite useful for someone with low vision. Although it does not include a screen magnifier, it has a screen that shows text in large fonts and high contrast colors. These users will be able to customize the screen brightness and reverse foreground and background colors to meet their needs.

Hearing

The device has a hearing aid compatibility rating of M3/T3. However, inserting a magnetic loop set may not be possible because the phone does not include a 3.5 jack or Bluetooth technology.

Deaf users will be able to send and receive text messages, but will be unable to make videocalls because this phone does not have a camera.

Dexterity

The Alto II is not suitable to users with dexterity disabilities. Those with very little or no dexterity skills may not be able to use this phone. It does not support speech recognition features and it is not compatible with any third party software that offers this service. In addition, controlling it with a stylus or a similar device is not possible.

People with moderate fine motor skills will also have difficulties using this device. It does not support predictive text, hands free or auto-answering features. Also, some of these users may have trouble sliding the casing to get access to the keypad.

Comprehension

This phone is adequate for someone with a cognitive disability or with limited comprehension skills. Unlike the majority of phones in the market, this one is text only. No icons are included which can make interaction easier for these users.

Configuration instructions are written in a simple language and are quite easy to understand. However, although the documentation provided by the manufacturer in their website complies with screen reader requirements, it is only available in English, which may affect some non-English speakers.

For more information about the accessibility features in this device, please see Amóvil’s full accessibility report.

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