My husband has a fitness tracking device that he wears on his wrist. We got it thinking it could be a good aid for tracking his workouts and were excited to see what other benefits it might offer such as a heart rate monitor or fall detection. The price was right, he was able to get a free one through his insurance program.

Unfortunately, the design of this free model is too small for my husband to manage. His hands, thanks to Parkinson’s, cannot manipulate the small screen to get to the additional programming. I often see him whacking the device just to get it to tell him what time it is, he isn’t able to access even the basics like tracking his steps. Also, this model doesn’t detect falls or place emergency calls and we aren’t sure about heart rate, it’s too complicated for us to figure out. The only good thing I can really think to say about it is that it has a long battery life. I’m not sure why he still wears it other than it’s become a habit.

Technological advances are great as long as the people making them consider the audience they are serving. My son has a tracker just like this and it works great for him, but then he is only 40 years old. I am not sure who in the government decided that this particular device would be a good fit for seniors, but I think they might want to revisit and consider something a bit more user friendly. In the meantime, we have learned that just because a tool is designed to serve a purpose, it may not serve our purpose.