I'm looking for a universal tv remote control that is compatible with cable tv services, including record/play functions, for a 94yo with dementia. The regular remote control that he's used to using has become too difficult for him - he gets the buttons mixed up, and has trouble placing his fingertip on the correct button. The "accessible" remote controls that I've found online have too few functions. The ideal remote control would have haptic cues, effective colour-coding, icons instead of words wherever possible, and no extraneous buttons. Keywords I have already used include "accessible", "dementia", "dementia friendly", "assistive", "assistive technology", and have come up with bupkus.
I am also exercising tremendous self-restraint by not including my own rant about the terrible design of every single remote control in existence - they don't even work for fully-abled people! And the designs that are passed off as "accessible" are not worth the time to consider.
For awhile we wrote the remote instructions down on a pad of paper for my mother who suffered from dementia. And for a very short while she was able to watch tv. Until she'd call screaming that the tv people were talking in another language. So then we taped off certain buttons so she knew NOT to press them. Until she did and all hell broke loose.
Oftentimes I'd call the desk at the Memory Care and ask one of the aides to go into her room and help mom with the remote. It was always short lived until the next problem arose.
I don't believe a remote exists that will usable for very long with a dementia patient. Soon enough my mother even stopped reading her beloved People magazine I had her subscribed to. I'd go over to visit and there'd be snow on the tv and she'd just be sitting there. It's all very sad and heartbreaking.
I wish you good luck in solving this issue. Should you manage to, please come back and let us know the secret.