My sister cannot use her phone as she is unable to "work" it. I am looking for something to allow communications. Suggestions?

Being able to call for help is one of the big IADLs (instrumental activities of daily living) used in needs assessments or to assess safety.

Judy, just to confirm - what sort of housing is your sister in? Is it still independent living?

How many hours is she alone there & how many hours with support?

We use a Facebook Portal with my mom. I set up a Facebook profile for her specifically for this, you have to be friends to call, so I friended friends and family, just for that purpose. So it shows your Facebook profile pic and requires only one tap to call. When someone calls her, she would only have to tap once to answer. It stays plugged into the wall so no charging issues. Its connected via the WiFi at her facility, We found it was easier for her to see a face, sometimes when she would get off a phone call and then ask who was that? When its not being used as a video call, you can set up a slide show of photos, like a digital photo frame, you can do that remotely, even change occasionally.

As far as emails, my mom no longer can reliably access that, so I print them out and take them to the facility for her to read. I encourage her friends to send her a card or a note or a photo.. She keeps those in a purse and looks at them frequently .

My landline is even touch and go, needs to be charged too!
It has never really worked very well since I threw it out the front door.

I often have to explain that I can no longer talk to sis as the phone is wonky.
I think. 🤣

Back in the day all you had to do to answer the phone was to pick up the receiver and talk, it never needed charging and it was plugged into the wall so you couldn't lose it either. If you find a retro phone she could at least take incoming calls, a lifetime of muscle memory might even make outgoing calls possible.

Judy1947, your profile says your 75-yr old sister is in independent living with ALZ. She is now not only unable to retain what she currently knows, she is actively "forgetting" simpler things. IMO it is not a good investment of your energies to try to keep her "independent", including ways for her to communicate with the outside world. She will not be able to learn and retain even the simplest of things now, and may even forget what her Life Alert necklace is for and remove it. It is also increasingly dangerous (wandering, interacting with strangers, leaving the stove on, etc). Have you begun researching MC facilities? You don't want to be frantically doing this in a moment of crisis. In MC she will be safe and have social interaction and YOU will have peace of mind and can stop orbiting around her to the point of exhaustion, because she will need to either go into MC or have a full-time live-in caregiver at some point. It may be helpful for you to learn more about ALZ by watching some Teepa Snow videos on YouTube (she's very lively and entertaining on a very serious topic). I wish you much clarity and wisdom as you help protect her.

You might try an echo dot or a google nest. Once you connect it with her phone, she would be able to call the people on her contact list by just telling it to call ...