Here are some tips for purchasing a phone if you have a physical or hidden disability. When choosing a phone, make sure that it has the features you need before you buy - not all features are available on every phone.

You may want to look at phones that:

• Are light and easy to grip, or where you can add an easy grip case
• Have a touchscreen - can activate most of these with one finger
• Come with a physical keypad with large well-spaced buttons
• Are specially designed to be easy to use, such as the Doro

Voice activation

Most smartphones (Apple iOS, Android and Windows phones) either have builtin features to enable voice control, such as Siri for Apple iOS, or you can install an app to do the same job. These can help you:

• Call someone in your phonebook just by speaking their name
• Search the internet using voice commands
• Dictate text messages and email messages
• Open applications using your voice
• Use your voice to record notes for reminders or to send as messages

General settings

• Set buttons to make a sound or vibrate when you touch them, so you know what you are pressing
• Personalise your ringtones for each person, so you know who is calling
• Set up your phone for speed or one touch dialling so you only have to press one button to call
• Attach a photo to a number so you can easily see who is call
• Choose a hands-free kit/ Bluetooth headset so you don't need to hold your phone on a call
• Use predictive texting or a predictive typing app to limit the amount of typing you have to do
• If you use a particular message often, then save it to your phone so you can resend it easily
• Use the camera's pinch to zoom feature to make an area on the screen larger
• Use your phone's alarm or calendar for reminders
• Use your phones calendar or a dedicated app for saving notes

Accessibility settings

Most smartphones have a section in the settings called Accessibility, where you can find some helpful features like:

• Touch and Hold delay accessibility service for Android allows you to set a pre-determined amount of time for tapping and holding the screen
• Switch Control Accessibility feature for Apple iOS allows you to control the phone using a single switch or multiple switches
• Assistive Touch Accessibility Service for Apple iOS helps you with gestures that you may have difficulty with. It is also possible to add an external device such as a joystick

• Switch on text to speech output Switch on Voiceover (Apple iOS) or Talkback (Android) to have the phone speak to you. This has been designed for the blind but might be particularly helpful for reading books or large pages of text on the internet. When switched on it lets you navigate the phone by swiping across the screen. Each item in turn is announced. Then, a double tap anywhere on the screen will activate the item. This means you don't have to target a small area such as an icon or button in order to select it

• Change your phone's default text to larger size

• Improve the screen contrast by changing the colours or fonts – this can be helpful for people with Dyslexia

External keyboard

There are lots of Bluetooth keyboards available that connect to your phone without using cables. This may make typing easier.

Visit an O2 store and speak to us for help with choosing a handset with the features you need.

If you need free independent advice, you can contact Scope by email or phone. Their website provides tips on using your smartphone and details on accessibility settings. This website is one of more than 60 websites with O2 that offer financial, health and wellbeing info, without using any of your data allowance.