Video Calling for Loved Ones with Limited Mobility or Dexterity
For families looking for an alternative to the phone.
The call arrives on the television and answers itself. Nothing to hold. Nothing to press. Nothing to reach in time.
Almost every phone made for people with mobility or dexterity problems is built around what the person can still manage. Bigger buttons. Easier grips. Voice control. They all start from the same question. How do we make a phone this person can still operate?
CallGenie started from a different question. Graham built it because he couldn’t find a way to keep in touch with his own mother. Everything on the market still needed something from her. So he built the one thing that didn’t.
The call arrives on the television and answers itself. Whether hands are weak, shaky or sore, it makes no difference.
If you’ve been looking at phones for arthritic hands, or easy phones for stroke survivors, and none of them felt right, this is the option you probably haven’t come across.
Four Different Situations, One Simple Answer
Weak grip, tremor, sore joints or simply being unable to get there in time. They are not the same problem, so it’s worth taking them one at a time.
After a Stroke
When one side is weaker and holding a handset is hard work. The call comes to them instead.
Parkinson's and Hand Tremors
When small buttons and touchscreens can’t be relied on. With CallGenie there is nothing to press.
Arthritis
When gripping a phone hurts. The call plays through the television, hands free from start to finish.
Bedbound & Difficulty Walking
When getting to a ringing phone in time isn’t possible. The call is simply there.
After a Stroke
Why ordinary phones fall short
A stroke often leaves one arm and hand weaker. Holding a handset to the ear becomes hard work with one hand, and touchscreens expect two.
Voice control looks like the answer, and for some people it is. But a stroke can affect speech as well as movement. Around a third of stroke survivors have aphasia, which makes finding words difficult. A phone that has to be spoken to at the right moment is a phone that can’t always be answered.
And recovery comes in stages. A device that’s manageable in month six may be out of reach in month one, which is exactly when contact with family matters most.
3 in 4
stroke survivors are left with weakness in their arm and hand.
What CallGenie changes
The call arrives on their television and answers itself. There is nothing to hold and nothing to press. If speech is affected, there’s nothing to say either. The call simply begins, and seeing your face is the conversation.
And as recovery moves forward, there’s nothing to relearn. CallGenie works the same in week one as it does in year one.
Parkinson’s and Hand Tremors
Why ordinary phones fall short
A tremor turns small buttons into moving targets, and touchscreens misread shaking fingers. Even a big-button phone still has to be picked up and held steady at the right moment.
Timing is the quiet problem. Parkinson’s symptoms shift through the day as medication takes effect and wears off. A phone that’s manageable at eleven in the morning can be impossible by four. A ringing phone doesn’t wait for a good moment.
166,000
people in the UK are living with Parkinson’s, and for most of them tremor is part of it.
What CallGenie changes
Nothing needs to be held and nothing needs to be pressed. The call arrives on the television at whatever moment it comes, and answers itself. On a good day or a difficult one, it works exactly the same.
Arthritis
Why ordinary phones fall short
Arthritis makes gripping painful. A handset held to the ear through a long call is tiring, and small buttons need firmer presses than stiff joints want to give.
There’s a quieter problem too. Skin gets drier with age, and dry fingertips often don’t register on a touchscreen at all. Many older people aren’t struggling to learn the phone. The phone is failing to notice them.
1 in 6
people in the UK live with arthritis. That’s more than 10 million people.
What CallGenie changes
The call plays through the television, hands free from start to finish. There is nothing to grip and nothing to press. Their hands can stay resting exactly where they’re comfortable.
Bedbound, Housebound and End of Life
Why ordinary phones fall short
When getting around is difficult, a ringing phone across the room may as well be in the next street. By the time they reach it, the caller has given up. After enough missed calls, some people stop trying to answer at all.
Mobiles bring their own quiet workload. A phone that needs charging is a phone that’s often flat, especially when fetching the charger takes real effort. So it sits uncharged, and the calls stop coming.
For wheelchair users, the problem is rarely the chair itself. It’s crossing the room to a ringing phone in time, or holding a handset once they get there.
And near the end of life, when contact matters most of all, even lifting a handset can be too much to ask.
270,000
older people in England go a week without speaking to a friend or family member.
What CallGenie changes
The television is already there, in the room where they spend their time. The call arrives and answers itself. Nobody has to get up, and nothing has to be reached.
CallGenie is mains powered. There is no battery to run flat and nothing to remember to put on charge.
For families with someone near the end of life, that means being present gently and often, without asking anything of them. Your face on a familiar screen, in a familiar room.
When More Than One Thing Is Going On
Mobility and dexterity problems rarely arrive on their own. Arthritis at eighty often comes alongside fading eyesight or memory problems. A stroke can affect speech and vision as well as movement.
This is where the usual answers start to fail. A big-button phone still has to be reached and pressed. A voice-controlled phone still has to be spoken to clearly. Each device lowers one barrier while leaving the others standing.
CallGenie doesn’t lower the barrier. It takes it away. Because the call needs nothing from the person, it keeps working when more than one difficulty is in play.
If your loved one is also living with memory loss, our dementia page looks at that in detail. If hearing or sight is the challenge, see our hearing and sight loss page.
How CallGenie Works
Make a Call
Family or friends make a video call to CallGenie using either your smartphone, tablet, or computer using Microsoft Teams. The user can make
Auto Answer on the Television
CallGenie will turn on the television, and switch automatically to the input for the video call. No buttons required.
Enjoy Your Call
Enjoy having your catch up with your loved one on the big screen. When you end the call on your device CallGenie will automatically switch the television back to the previous state, whether the previous channel or back into standby.
If They Want To Call You
CallGenie is built so that receiving a call asks nothing at all. If you'd also like your loved one to be able to call out, you can add a button.
Each button calls one person and carries their name. They plug into the unit behind the television, but it does mean they sit by the television rather than by the chair. That makes this part of CallGenie better suited to someone who can get up and cross the room.
Press one and it calls that person. When the person they've called hangs up, the television goes back to whatever was on before.
Two things worth knowing. The buttons don't beep, so the confirmation is the television coming on. And the name is printed, so it only helps if your loved one can read it. If reading is difficult, for any reason, start with a single button they can find by touch.
Buttons are an optional extra. If you'd rather keep things to receiving calls only, you simply don't add any.
What You Need At Your End
You call from Microsoft Teams on your phone, tablet or computer. That's the only part anyone has to operate, and it's the part you're doing, not them.
If you sign, it's worth thinking about your own camera position. Family members who use BSL usually prop the phone up or work from a laptop, so both hands are free and the signing stays in frame. At their end, you appear at full television size.
Group calls work too, so you can bring a second person into the same call.
What Families Say About CallGenie
Stories from real families. These are some of the families who have found a way to stay close.
“My dad cried tears of joy when we had our first call genie call! Dad has struggled with video calls on mobile phones with his Parkinson’s and Dementia. The Call Genie has helped immensely. I highly recommend!”
“What a difference this has made to my mother in law. After losing her husband, breaking her hip and dementia setting in, from being 1.5 hours away my husband (her son) and I can have a real conversation with her. She is thrilled to have a live/in person chat everyday which makes her feel that she is just round the corner.”
“Now I can communicate with my 81-year-old mother, who suffers from Parkinson’s and struggles to use a mobile phone. I am grateful for the technical support that arrived within a few hours.”
“The call genie was put in to aid my father and enable the family to stay in touch with him. He was unable due to physical issues and the progressive dementia to operate buttons on remote controls or use Whats App/ zoom apps so being able to have something cut through his tv and enable us to have face to face conversation with no stress his end was an absolute godsend.“
Tried, Tested and Trusted by Families Across the Globe
Every device is set up remotely by our team. We work directly with each family before the first call is made. There are no call centres and no automated support lines, just straightforward, personal help from someone who understands what families are going through.
CallGenie is recognised by organisations that families and professionals already trust.
AgeSpace
Recommended by one of the worlds leading eldercare guides.
NHS Highland
Listed by name in the Technology Enabled Care guide to simple video calling devices.
West Lothian HSCP
Featured as assistive technology for preventing social isolation.
What you get, and what happens next
CallGenie arrives ready to work. Everything needed is in the box, including the unit, the camera and the cables that plug into the television. There’s no app for your loved one to download and no account for them to set up.
You plug it in, connect it to their Wi-Fi and their television, and then we finish the setup with you on a video call. That session is included, not an extra.
There are no monthly fees. You pay once. Twelve months of support and warranty come with it, by email, phone or remote access, so most problems can be sorted out without anyone coming to the house. You can extend that cover to one of our annual service plans if you’d like.
Only the people you add can call in. Nobody else can reach the television.
And if we can’t get CallGenie working properly on their television, you get your money back under our refund policy.
Will it work with their television?
Almost certainly. CallGenie works with televisions from 20 to 75 inches. It needs a feature called HDMI-CEC, which is standard on nearly all smart televisions and on most sets made since 2010. The exception we know of is televisions running Amazon Fire TV Edition, including Amazon’s own branded sets, which we can’t control.
If you’re not sure, send us the make and model and we’ll check before you order. It’s the first thing we’d ask anyway.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can someone use CallGenie with one hand, or after a stroke?
They don’t need their hands at all. The call arrives on the television and answers itself, so there’s nothing to hold and nothing to press. If speech has been affected, there’s nothing to say either. The call simply starts.
Will hand tremors stop them using CallGenie?
No. There are no buttons to press and no touchscreen to tap, so a tremor makes no difference. The call answers itself and plays through the television.
Do they need to charge anything?
No. CallGenie runs from the mains, like the television it’s connected to. There’s no battery to run flat and nothing to remember to plug in.
What if they can't get to the phone in time?
There’s nothing to get to. The call arrives on the television, wherever they already are, and answers on its own. Missed calls stop being a worry.
How is this different from a voice-controlled phone?
Voice control suits someone who can speak clearly at the moment the call comes in. But stroke and Parkinson’s can both affect speech, which is exactly when voice control lets people down. CallGenie starts from the opposite assumption, that nothing can be asked of the person at all. Not their hands, and not their voice.
Does it work for someone who is in bed most of the day?
Yes, as long as they can see the television from where they are. Many families set CallGenie up on a bedroom TV for exactly this reason. If the television sits across a large room, ask us about CallGenie Zoom, which is designed for bigger spaces.
Can they call me, or only receive calls?
They can, with the optional call buttons, though the buttons sit by the television rather than by the chair. See If they want to call you above for what to weigh up.
Do we need fast broadband at their end?
They’ll need high-speed broadband, ideally fibre, with at least 2 Mbps upload and download. Most home broadband comfortably clears that. If you’re not sure what they have, tell us and we’ll help you check.
Staying close, made simple
If someone you love finds a phone hard to hold or hard to reach, you shouldn’t have to hope they manage. With CallGenie there’s nothing for them to manage. You call, and you’re there on their TV, face to face.
Every other device starts by asking what your loved one can still do. CallGenie was designed from the start to ask nothing of them at all. That’s why it keeps working as strength and steadiness change.
Because staying connected with family should never feel out of reach.
Contact Us
Ask a question or check your television will be compatible with CallGenie
North American Distributor Phone
703-582-7225
North American
Administrative Address
120 Mesa Verde st, Santa Fe, NM 87501