Help buying for mum who can no longer see

[Concestor]

My mum has lost most of her sight and now cannot read books or watch TV or even look at pictures or decorations.
I've no idea what to buy her for Christmas (and her birthday in February).
She used to enjoy galleries etc but again that's not possible any more.
I can get her nice face cream like I do every year but that's usually just a little gift to go with her main gift, which is usually a lovely book, tickets to an exhibition, that kind of thing.
I have no idea what to get her and feel really sad about it. Her life has altered so much due to her sight loss.
Any ideas?

Ive got a gorgeous blanket with lots of different textures - velvet, fur, beads, other bits. Something like that might be nice? I think mine was from Graham + Green, but it was years ago.

Talking books? I love them and use them all the time, when driving, doing housework, going to sleep.

A concert playing her favourite style of music, proms or that sort of thing, open air in the evening in the summer so she can use her other senses.....smell, hearing.

Audio books and something to play them on? Do you think she would be able to learn to use a Kindle?
Or an Echo Dot or similar, so she can just use her voice to give it instructions?

An Alexa for music/audio books/news/radio etc?

I was going to suggest a blanket.

Does she have a speaking clock?

does Your mum have gadgets to assist her with day to day life?

id say afterwards tea, either out if she’s confident to do so or at home

my best friend is registered blind, she went to blind school for a year, where different tricks were taught to cope with not seeing

talking books? Podcasts

does your mum get a delivery of talking books from the library?

Tactile art, there's plenty about.

If she enjoys making art then maybe pottery, see if there are some classes.

Audio books.

An Echo or similar.

Concert tickets.

There are embroidery sets for the visually imported as well.

Would some sort of pot pouri or Reed diffuser be nice? Different one for each room?

• I too thought of audio books, along with a way to play them
• Comfortable slippers with a sturdy sole
• Scented hand soap or a hand soap pump
• Sheepskin rug to put next to the bed when she gets out in the morning (or faux fur if against wool)
• Fragrant plants or herbs- basil, mint, lavender, roses.
• A recording of the family making well wishes to her. Esp those that aren't nearby and live farther afield. Like a recorded, verbal Christmas card.

A soft scarf (or silky if she prefers the feel of that) sprayed with a scent she likes

A subscription to Audible?

I second the idea of tech.

My mum now has limited sight and over the last year or so we got her a few Echo Dots and an Amazon Prime subscription.

She LOVES it. She listens to loads of music, gets Alexa to update her on the news on demand, gets the weather forecast, plays the radio on it, gets it to tell her jokes, uses it for reminders, listens to podcasts, listens to comedy programmes, sends and receives messages through it. (We even tried out an Audible subscription through it too, but she didn’t like it.)

Honestly she says she doesn’t know how she managed without it.

A talking clock where you ask it the time. Really good quality audiobooks. Scented things.

How is she with technology?
DMIL is severely visually impaired and she has a watch which reads out the time. She has also embraced Alexa and uses it to listen to podcasts, the radio and to Google various things she wants answers to. She doesn't need it for books though as she has a gadget from the RNIB which plays books that they send her on a memory stick every few weeks. We also used Alexa for her to operate the bedroom lights when she came to stay - she knows where all her light switches are in her house so not an issue.
So is there any technology you could buy that would make her life easier?

We had a glowing moon lamp made for my Nan, it had a picture of her and my grandad engraved into it so it could be felt with hands.

DM is losing her sight and she loves music so CDs are he favourite choice. We have tried her with Audible on her ipad but she prefers CDs. She's 85 and struggles with anything new. We are going to try her with an Alexa and hope she can get used to that. I agree with tech to help your mum if she can manage it.

Other than that, DM does not want a lot, so I take her on days out instead.

My dad has macular degeneration but can still see his iPad to a degree. Any ideas of any apps etc that I can download for him to help him to read his usual sites.

I brought my Nan an Alexa Dot when she lost her sight and she uses it every day

For audio books something a little less technical than Alexa could be a Yoto with make-your-own audio cards. I have Yotos for my kids and think it's an area they need to move into for older people losing their sight.

It's incredibly easy to use and robust, and you can put any audio book you want on it (so you could borrow from borrow box or CDs from the library and use the audio files to create the cards on the Yoto website).

Depending where you are based would any of these events appeal to her -
vocaleyes.co.uk/whats-on/?eventType=any&region=any

RNIB shop has some lovely gifts:

shop.rnib.org.uk

You can get a scanner that reads - a text to speech device
Not cheap but enable you to read the newspaper etc

Musicals in London will often supply audio descriptors for the blind. Tickets might be a good gift.

Voucher for champagne afternoon tea.

Voucher for massage.