07/20/98 PRODUCTS THAT MAKE LIFE USER-FRIENDLY AGAIN

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PRODUCTS THAT MAKE LIFE USER-FRIENDLY AGAIN
A host of products can give back some of what time takes away
In 1988, audiologist Thomas A. Powers fit President Ronald Reagan with a state-of-the-art hearing aid. While the instrument could amplify speech, its ability to suppress background noise was limited. But like all things high tech, what was state of the art a decade ago bears little resemblance to today's top of the line. Powers, now director of audiology at Siemens Hearing Instruments Inc., is steering some patients to a tiny, programmable hearing aid that's concealed inside the ear canal. Using digital signal processing, the device allows users to hear a whisper even as a jet passes overhead.
As you age, you may suffer hearing and vision loss and a gradual decline in strength, flexibility, dexterity, and endurance. Fortunately, a slew of high-tech devices can help you surf the Net, chat on the phone, and cook with aplomb.
Around the country, mail-order houses, online merchants, and specialized retail chains are catering to the needs of seniors who can use a little technology to ease the daily grind. Take Independent Living Aids (800 537-2118; www.
independentliving.com), a Plainview (N.Y.) mail-order retailer. ILA sells a modified Goldstar microwave oven that announces, in a clipped British accent, such basic commands as ''Cook meat high'' or ''Cook fish low,'' when you press the corresponding button. Of course, you pay extra for the voice: The oven costs $365, plus shipping, roughly $200 more than a conventional model. ILA also carries talking scales, watches, calculators, blood-pressure monitors, and, for $695, a money identifier that barks out bill denominations from $1 to $100. The machine can even announce the total value of all the bills it scans, up to $9,999.
If you're like many older Americans, you have come to rely on your PC to stay in touch with loved ones or the stock market. That doesn't have to be a challenge if you have visual or other impairments. To help you better see your keyboard, large-print stick-ons can be affixed to the keys. If you have difficulty manipulating the keyboard, you may want to check out the latest advances in speech-recognition software.
Such programs as IBM's (IBM) ViaVoice, Lernout & Hauspie's (LHSPF) Voice Xpress, and Dragon Systems' NaturallySpeaking allow users to dictate letters to a PC via a microphone. Improvements in speech programs now allow more natural phrasing. ''You used to have to say 'Bold that,' to switch to a bold typeface,'' says William Meisel, president of TMA Associates, a consultant in Tarzana, Calif. ''Now, you can say 'Make that bold,' 'Make the last word bold,' or phrase it 20 other ways.''
GOOD-LOOKING. Speech recognition still is far from perfect. But Bruce Mahaffey, a planner in the IBM Special Needs Systems Group in Austin, Tex., says ViaVoice's accuracy percentage, for an experienced user, is in the high 90s. That's decent enough for people who want to dispatch E-mail or write personal letters.
Software that turns print into speech is another option that can help you with your PC. WYNN (or What You Need Now), a $399 program produced by IBM and Arkenstone of Sunnyvale, Calif., can read aloud the text of E-mail and word-processing files. It also can alter the way text is presented on your screen by enlarging the type, changing color combinations, and increasing space between words and lines.
There are cheaper ways to magnify files on a computer screen. The National Institute for Rehabilitation Engineering (800 736-2216) sells a $44 program called BigW Screen Magnifier that can enlarge type on a screen up to tenfold. There also are high-tech solutions for those who have difficulty reading books or documents. The ILA catalog offers, at $2,495, the Tru-View System 20-inch Color CCTV (short for closed-circuit television). Its large monitor and built-in zoom lens lets you magnify objects and written materials up to 50 times. It also functions as a TV and comes complete with a rolling table whose height can be set to wheelchair level. For an extra $500, the magnifier can be adapted to your PC.
Some people object that poorly designed lifestyle aids, despite their benefits, advertise users' physical limitations. Telephones with outsized keys, for instance, signal that the owner has a vision problem. ''We've never found it's age that determines whether or not people like products,'' says Margaret A. Wylde, CEO of ProMatura Group in Oxford, Miss., a research company that evaluates products for seniors.
DIAL FOR HELP. One well-designed product, says Wylde, is MainStreet Messenger, a combination phone and personal emergency-response system (PERS) from Elcombe Systems Ltd. (www.elcombe.com) in Kanata, Ont. It features large, yet attractive, backlit keys and a handset compatible with hearing aids. If you need help, pressing a button on a cordless pendant-transmitter dials a friend, family member, doctor, or 911. A speakerphone is activated when the call goes through. The unit costs about $500. For $25 to $35 a month extra, you can get emergency monitoring by a U.S. or Canadian hospital. American Medical Alert (800 645-3244) and Lifeline Systems (800 642-0045) are among other outfits selling PERS units. A low-tech product that received a design award from the American Society on Aging (www.asaging.org) is RCR International's Hose-Rench, whose large rubber grip makes it simpler to tighten a garden hose on a spigot.
Many products are well-suited to older people even if the designers didn't originally have older folks in mind. Senior Friendly in Northbrook, Ill. (www.senior friendly.com), currently rates microwaves, camcorders, and VCRs according to their ease of use among people over 50. Tests are conducted by 50- to 70-year-old users. Manufacturers can pay to license a ''Senior Friendly'' seal of approval for models with top scores.
Among products that have earned kudos are four microwave ovens--the Sharp R-420AW, Panasonic NN-S667BA, Samsung MW 5470 W, and Kenmore KM-68380. Each has easy-to-use control panels and easy-to-understand instructions. Three simple-to-load, 8-mm camcorders--Hitachi's VLR 625 LA, RCA's PRO943, and Sony's CCD TRV 12--passed muster. So did two VCRs, the RCA VR-615-HF and Phillips/Magnavox VR-362-AT.
Retailers focusing on the senior market carry a wide range of other new items as well. The Mature Mart (www.maturemart.com), an online mall, stocks more than 20,000 mostly low-tech items, from $16 extra-loud phone ringers with flashing lights to a $29 combination cane and folding chair. Centex Corp., (CTX) a Dallas-based homebuilder, has opened Centex Life Solutions superstores in Skokie, Ill., and Falls Church, Va., featuring scooters, ergonomic cookware, and even a $799 portable shower for elders who have trouble walking to the bathroom. The unit drains through a pump and hose.
From high-tech software to low-tech plumbing devices, the number of items geared toward seniors' special needs is on the rise. They can help make life easier even as age takes its toll.
By Edward C. Baig in New York

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