Help! Do tell me, is there someone somewhere sitting at a desk thinking up sadistic schemes to further bewilder the elderly and/or disabled and make their lives even more difficult?
First the much-lauded digital TV. We not only had lines across the screen (mainly BBC1 and 2), faces and voices frozen in time, no picture, complete silence and a blue logo showing no signal before the changeover, but it’s also been just as bad after the deadline. The retuned one upstairs shows nothing at all and has to be adjusted daily.
We happened to prefer BBC1 and 2. As a fairly well-educated and well-read person, I like quizzes, documentaries, art and archaeology etc, not rubbishy repeats or Freeview.
Now we come to small print. When you can decipher the odd word, the inexplicable jargon can only be understood by Einstein and his ilk.
Now for screw-top jars, bottles and buster packs of medicines, too difficult to open for those with weak fingers.
“Ah”, you say, “there are gadgets to cope with these.” But said fingers can’t operate the gadgets, so what then? A sledgehammer, chainsaw, weapons of mass destruction?
Finally, I am a diabetic and because they are changing the blood glucose test strips, I have been sent an allegedly ‘easier’ new blood testing meter. Easier? It has five more new complicated processes to go through and I am mystified, so now what do I do? Go to my surgery four times daily? Highly unlikely.
So for pity’s sake, for everyone’s sanity, please leave things alone.
If it ain’t broke, don’t mend it. Most people don’t want change.
EDITH M PARSONS (Mrs,) Broadhead Place, Northway Estate, Oxford
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here