Is Audible a good present for my 90 year old partially sighted father without smart phone

[Ineedabiscuit]

I am racking my brain what to buy my soon to be 90 year old Father for his birthday . He doesn’t have a smart phone but can access an amazonfire . I want him to be able to listen out loud together with my 89 year old Mother but both are not tech savvy (understandably!) but I can down load books for them . I find audible and kindle options quite complicated to understand as I have both and never sure how you can set up some kind of family membership if I could piggy back this new membership for Dad on mine perhaps …?
Coming on Mumsnet as you guys are always a mine of information and advice !

I think it'd be great.

The downloading part for someone of that age would be hard. But once they have been downloaded all they have to do it click on the picture.

My friend did this for her FIL who was in the late stages of motor neurone disease and couldn't hold anything. Her (not tech savvy) MIL used to turn on the book in the morning and away he'd go. He absolutely loved it and got through loads of books in his final year.

There is an audible app on the firestick if he is confident using that it would suit.

Has he got an Alexa. I play all mine on it. Or the firestick.

I play audible through Alexa.

You can also buy new titles through Alexa if you have an audible account linked to the Alexa.

All he would have to say is 'Alexa play the complete works of Shakespeare on Audible' and Alexa would play it if it was already in his audible library or ask him if he wanted to buy it if it wasn't.

If you down load the audible app (on your parents smart phone/ iPad/ kindle or whatever tech they use) you can put in your account details your folks will have access to your books. you can down load the app on several devices I can't remember how many 5 or 6?
Alternatively if you or your folks are members of your local library you can down load either BorrowBox or Libby app, and listen to a good range of books for free.

Thank you all very much you’ve been very helpful
. I think I might try and download the audible app on the Fire tablet my brother bought for them but can’t use as they forget how !. So I will down load books on my account and then he can look or my mother help him choose from the pictures .
I have to confess I don’t have Alexa and don’t really get it but from what you’ve explained it might be perfect for Dad as he’s very good at telling my Mother what to do !!
Thanks again everybody

Just checking if you know the RNIB has a free talking books service for blind and partially sighted people? My aunt gets hers on a USB, but I think there's also a download option. But there's less choice than there is on audible.

I think that if they don't have an Alexa and can't work the Fire it might not work quite as well as you hope, especially if he's partially sighted.

Agree with having at look at the RNIB service as they can get downloads, USB or CDs or he can play them on an Alexa.

Has your brother set the Fire up so that your DF can use it with speech and has he tried altering the text to see which one suits your DF best?

Alexa is very easy to use once set up. You just buy the speaker (for example an Echo Dot) and, during set up, link it to your Amazon account.

Your parents would be able to use it to play music, listen to the radio, set reminders, write lists and listen to Audible books. It's such a great tool for older people who struggle with technology.

Thank you for your help and thoughtful ideas !
I’m going try and set up Alexa for DF and DM .