Ask HN: My mother is slowly losing her eyesight, how to prepare?
My mom went through a similar path, so here are some details I haven't seen already mentioned:<p>* Not too many people know that losing your eyesight is often followed by nightmares. The moment I told my mom this fact she stopped having them.<p>* The "problem" with suggesting Braille is that it requires an acceptance that one has lost their eyesight for good, which is a difficult step for many. So audio solutions could be better in the short term. The same goes for training for how to move around using a white cane.<p>* iPhones have a feature called VoiceOver that lets you use your phone without looking. My mom never really got the hang of it too much, but she definitely uses Siri a lot. Android has something too, but last time I checked it was not as good. Being able to take short and long notes (voice notes, small recorder, whatever works) should be a priority.<p>* If you install a screen reader, I encourage you to use a Linux laptop. Windows has a tendency to move things around for no good reason (and God have mercy if your OS auto-updates), which breaks my mom's muscle memory of how to open this or that program.<p>* Audiobooks: I typically convert EPUB/MOBI books with Calibre to DOCX, put them in a shared folder, and she uses the screen reader to hear them. I also use the same shared folder to download podcasts. Alexa didn't work well here at all, but that's because Alexa in South America sucks. Your case may be different.<p>* Be ready to curse whenever some clueless news anchor talks about a "miracle bionic eye" while praying that your mom doesn't hear about it. Having to be the one who's constantly shooting down someone's last hope is not cool.<p>I submitted a similar question here 8 years ago. You can check the answers here: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9546311">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9546311</a>