You can download books through Audible.com to an iPod. Those buttons are pretty easy to use. However, she might have to have help to switch from one book to another.

A better option might be a portable CD player and audio books on CD. Luckily, they still make both.

I also was going to suggest a simple cd player for audio books. I can borrow audio books from my library. How frustrating for her.

Agree that a CD player might fit her needs.

If she doesn't necessarily need it to be portable:
Google 'kids cd player' -- I just spotted a few that are very simple, not many buttons. If the color and pattern really won't bother her, there's a square-shaped "Hello Kitty" one (maybe she likes pink? LOL!), which is also a radio.

A smart woman on Etsy -- Alison from Calgary -- designed some labels for a portable CD player to help the vision-impaired, so check this out:

Here is a link that might be useful: etsy labels

Check with your local library- your state probably has a program for the legally blind and they'll know about it. With a note from her doctor, she can have a machine with large, simple buttons sent to her along with large cassettes of books of her choice. If Arkansas has it, I'm sure every state has it.

We got it for my mom, but she never used it. We didn't know it, but she was in beginning stages of some kind of dementia/Parkinsonism and couldn't figure out how to work it or concentrate on a book.

Good luck!

A few years ago I bought an old-fashioned, very simple tape recorder from Radio Shack. But of course such a thing would only be useful if you can find tapes! For my friend with MD, painting buttons with colored nail polish was helpful, or creating bumps on buttons. Yes, the simpler, the better. Maxiaides.com has loads of helpful items for people with limited or no sight. I hope you find a useful solution for your mom!

Are you in California? Talk to your local non-profit agency for the blind or the Braille Institute and get her signed up for audio books from the state. Might be in other states as well. They have a dedicated machine that only takes their books, and it really well designed to be easily used by the blind..

Here is a link that might be useful: California service, your state should have something

PS, it's a completely free service, even down to the mailing charges.

Thank you all for the ideas.

Sushipip, yes I am in Cali and I have been with my mom to the Braille Institute in the OC. I found their # today and intend to call them tomorrow and see what they have. They are only 2 miles from where she is living now.

Let me know how it goes. I help an 89-year old friend with her bill paying and shopping, and she has such a unit, Her case worker from the local blind center here in the Monterey area helped her with the paperwork, then helped her learn it when it arrived and I was really impressed by how well it is designed. There's a nice selection of tapes, too, altho my friend doesn't use it as much as she thought she would. Her favorite is Maya Angelou.

Isn't operating a CD player the same as operating a tape player?

I think all public libraries have audio books in CD format to check out. You can buy an inexpensive CD player/boombox/radio contraption for under $50.

If your mom qualifies for the state-run program, she will likely receive, free of charge, a machine similar to one of these in the link. Our program here in AR (Arkansas State Library for the Blind) sent both and asked my mother to choose which one suited her better. Large Braille buttons make them a lot easier to use if you're visually impaired.

They will mail you, also free of charge, the audio books that she requests and ours even mailed some that they thought she might enjoy, because we filled out a questionnaire with her preferences. Ours offers over 20,000 titles.

Here is a link that might be useful: 2 different machines-

Thanks for the pictures. My friend's machine is the smaller one, the tapes come in the blue mailer.

My father in law had a machine and tapes it was supplied to him by his local library, they have programs for people with sight problems and also hearing problems. He really enjoyed his, he had head phones since he also had hearing problems.